DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters, places or themes affiliated, blahblahblah, wonkwonkwonk, yaddayaddayah, etc. I'm smrt.
Chapter Fourteen: Try Hard
"Quick! Grab his leg!"
"He's behind you. Below."
"Do it now! Gogogo!" "ARF!"
"Try and roll out of the way."
"You got him!"
"...You didn't roll," Shikamaru commented, in his usual, lazy way.
"FLIP HIM! GO!" Kiba yelled, so into what he was doing, and Akamaru howled his approval.
"...flip him?" Ino said incredulously, walking into their part of the forest with Hinata.
Saneijin had grabbed Chouji's leg, and was now struggling to follow his coach's advice and flip the older boy; his face was turning red with the effort, while Chouji couldn't help but look down, pityingly. Kiba had been instructing Saneijin with wrestling, while Shikamaru had been cheering Chouji on in his own, laid back fashion; Deniizu was sitting up in a tree, laughing quietly at the four-year-old's efforts. Ino shook her head, knowing that Kiba was not being wise with his decision to train Saneijin.
"Michiko doesn't know about this, does she?" Ino asked, crossing her arms, and flipping her head to keep her bangs out of her eyes.
"Of course not," Kiba scoffed, "She's on sentry duty."
"Kiba!" Hinata tsked, "You know Saneijin's too young to be training!"
"Mimi-okaa said I could help fight!" Saneijin pouted, letting go of Chouji's leg and running over to puff his chest out proudly in front of his two 'big sisters'.
"Mimi-okaa also said that you had to grow up a little first before Kiba could teach you how to throw people around," Ino pointed out, shaking a finger in front of Saneijin's nose.
The green-eyed boy wrinkled his nose at the blonde; she always talked down on him, since he was so small. So to prove how grown-up he was, Saneijin stuck his tongue out at Ino for good measure.
"C'mon, guys," Deniizu said coaxingly, "What Michiko doesn't know can't hurt her!"
"Saneijin almost had an ulcer not ten seconds ago!" Ino exclaimed, pointing at the small boy, who was scowling at his elder, "She's going to notice if he's pulled a muscle when we start walking again!"
"He's been travelling all morning, just like the rest of us," Kiba argued, "She'll probably think he's just tired, instead."
"...Oh no, she's not," Ino said after a second of silence, a smug smile on her face.
Kiba started to answer back, but froze when someone tapped him on his shoulder. Shikamaru shook his head, and Chouji picked up Saneijin and started to carry him away when they saw who was behind Kiba. The latter turned around slowly, and was promptly hit at the side of his head, hard enough for him to see a few stars and hear a few bells chiming.
"Boke," Michiko growled, and all four of her dog team bared their teeth at Kiba disapprovingly, "How many times do I have to tell you that you can't keep encouraging him like that?"
"It's not that big of a deal!" Kiba exclaimed, rubbing a growing lump, "Even Chouji thought it was ok that Saneijin could wrestle!"
"Chouji wasn't telling Saneijin to try and flip him," Michiko shot back, flicking her brother's forehead irritably.
"Why aren't you keeping watch for the group?" Shikamaru asked, forestalling any further yelling.
"Because we're breaking camp, now," Ino answered, "That's why we came here; to tell you guys. And good thing, too, for Saneijin over there," she nodded to where Chouji and Saneijin were still walking, in the distance, "He could've hurt himself. You idiots."
"Ano...our sensei and the other shinobi are waiting for us," Hinata said softly, "Shall we go, now?"
Shikamaru yawned, muttered 'troublesome' under his breath, then led the way through the woods, with Ino right in step with him. Michiko hauled Kiba up painfully by the ear, and both Inuzuka and their dogs also hurried to meet the others. Hinata started to move, then looked up the tree at Deniizu, a worried expression on her face. The older kunoichi was moving sluggishly; she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. On one hand, it was true that none of the ninja had had any warning about their important mission, so it wouldn't be fair to be annoyed at Deniizu's lack of preparation. But on the other hand, she shouldn't have been awake all night anyway. She knew that all ninja were supposed to be in top shape every day, since Konoha was still trying to recuperate from Orochimaru's attack; all levels of ninja had to work their hardest to keep the village running smoothly, and pulling an all-nighter for something that wasn't going to help the village was the opposite of that.
"Deniizu-kun?" Hinata walked beside the other kunoichi, who was rubbing her eyes tiredly, "Will you be all right?"
"...I guess," Deniizu said hesitantly, "But...a soldier pill would help."
"Was nice try."
Hinata and Deniizu blinked, then spun around to see Inel, who had been behind them without their knowing. The almost middle-aged jounin turned both of them by the shoulders and pushed them slightly so that they would continue walking.
"So you taught Michiko that neat little sneaking up trick," Deniizu joked, trying to keep things light.
"Do no give her the soldier pills, Hinata-chan," Inel said firmly, not angry, but not joking either, "She is the strong enough to last this one day. And if she were so tired, she would have been taking a nap during our lunch break."
"I meant to," Deniizu argued half-heartedly, "But then Saneijin was learning how to wrestle, so I was watching in case he got hurt-"
"You do no even like Saneijin, you were watching to see pain, no to help," Inel chuckled, then got serious again, "Deniizu, the no soldier pills rule is your punishment. Same with Rinde, and she is complaining every ten minutes."
"Yeah, but she's complaining for just walking!" Deniizu argued again, "I actually need a boost; I'm tired!"
"You should think about these things when you are terrorizing with your Itachi," Inel retorted, "Pills only are for the emergencies."
"It's just another six hours of walking, Deniizu-kun," Hinata said patiently, "You'll manage. I know you; pretend there's banana-flavoured Pocky at our last rest stop of the day, and you'll be fine."
"That's what Michiko said," Deniizu grumbled, but she still nodded; the rest of the day's travel went smoothly for the large group.
And then some boring walking and sleeping later...
It was just past noon, on the group's second day of travel. Gaara and Firu were now looking for a place for the group to rest; they were scheduled for a break, and they especially wanted to end the conversation going on behind them, at the back of the group.
"We've been walking all day!" Rinde exclaimed, "I'm tired!"
"And you were up late last night drawing!" Deniizu snapped, "Serves you right!"
"Why can't we stop, already? It's been hours!"
"Your mom takes hours!"
"...What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means 'shut up', all right?"
Mendokuse...Shikamaru thought, annoyed, They're louder and angrier than Ino with a bad hair day.
They've been arguing with each other since they woke up, Chouji thought, walking quietly, trying to tune out the two kunoichi's voices by looking into the surrounding foilage for possible enemies, Deniizu isn't used to moving around during the day, anymore, so she didn't get much sleep last night. And Rinde's been like this since yesterday.
Michiko was braiding and rebraiding her hair while she walked in the front, in order to keep herself from trying to intervene. All members of the group had made attempts to silence the two girls in the past few hours, but either they would be ignored, yelled at, forced to pick a side, or the peace would only last a few minutes. Rinde would still voice her need for rest, and Deniizu, with her present crankiness, still felt the need to argue back at Rinde.
"Listen, kohai, maybe you should shut up, since you're just a genin," Rinde suggested sneeringly.
"Listen, teme, you forget that I think you don't deserve to be a jounin," Deniizu countered, in the same tone of voice Rinde had used, "Dammit, you're so useless! Can't even shut up for five minutes!"
"Look who's talking!" Rinde said, a triumphant ring in her voice.
"Look who started it!" Deniizu yelled, her fists clenched tightly.
Korii saw a few nerves pop on both girls' foreheads; silently, he looked at Shino and jerked his head towards the two quarrelers meaningfully. Without a word, Shino glided between the two girls and pushed them apart, making himself a barrier between them so that they couldn't argue without putting in extra effort. This snapped Deniizu out of it pretty well, but Rinde wanted to keep arguing. She opened her mouth to say something, but Shino fixed her with a glare and released an aura that even tactless Rinde could sense; abruptly, she snuck over to where Daneiru was and linked arms with him, hiding from the bug-using shinobi.
Let me hit her! Deniizu thought to Korii, Just once! I'll knock her out, and it'll do all of us a favour.
I thought you knew genjutsu that were more subtle and safe than hitting her over the head, Korii asked calmly.
But we're supposed to save chakra...is that a 'no'?
Yes, that's a 'no'. Oh crap!
The three teachers, Firu, Korii, Gaara and Chouji all stopped in their tracks. Chouji had finally glimpsed someone in the surrounding forest, and they did not appear to be friendly.
"Someone's hiding from us at our right," Chouji said, directing his observation mainly to Asuma and Gaara.
"Good call," Asuma nodded, "I saw him, too."
"It was a chick," Korii and Firu said bluntly at the same time, "Not a dude."
Asuma gave both 17-year-olds a look that read something along the lines of a friendly, "Oh yeah? Prove me wrong."
"I bet 200 ryou that I'm right," Korii said calmly, holding out a hand.
"You're on," Asuma grinned, shaking Korii's hand to seal the bet, This guy's just a new chuunin...I'm probably right.
Gaara examined each of the ninja for a moment, then looked at Michiko meaningfully and nodded towards Hinata slightly.
"Firu-san, Korii-san, sensei, I would appreciate your assistance," Gaara said dully, and he launched himself into the trees.
"Hai."
The four jounin and Korii followed the young shinobi quickly, and Michiko turned around to look at the remaining ten who were with her.
"I guess that means you lead," Ino said, pouting slightly while she spoke to Michiko.
"That's not fair! Michi's a genin!" Rinde pouted openly.
"I'm the only one here who both loves Suna enough to definitely put effort into helping it, and who Gaara trusts," Michiko pointed out gently, and after a moment of thought, she motioned for Shikamaru, Shino, and Daneiru to come to her.
"Hey, what about me?" Rinde exclaimed, indignant, "I'm a jounin! Aren't you going to ask for my help?"
"Shino and Shikamaru were assigned to be deputies for our teams, and from Team 13, Deniizu doesn't like leading," Chouji answered, explaining Michiko's reasons for choosing the people she had, "Now she has a representative from every team."
"But Team 13's down one extra person anyway," Rinde said, "Mishelly, you already know what that Daniel and Denise can do, so you should've picked me! Our impromptu team should stick together anyway!"
Why'd she pronounce their names like that? Ino thought, examining Rinde carefully.
Shit, Ino and Shikamaru noticed! Denise thought, then set to work entering their minds and hiding any memories of the portal-users' other names.
"No, out of all these people, I only know what Deniizu does," Michiko corrected calmly, but hoping that Denise was already taking care of Linda's slip of the tongue, "Shino tells me about Team 8's strengths and weaknesses, Shikamaru knows Team 10, and Daneiru...um..."
Michiko's voice trailed off, not sure how she should finish her sentence. She was a bit embarassed to scold her friend and senior ninja, but Shikamaru had no such qualms.
"You and Daneiru are the only strangers we have, and we've only seen Daneiru train while on this trip, not you," Shikamaru answered, "I don't know what you can do, so how can any of us factor in your abilities when planning? Considering your past performance, Daneiru is the only one we can really trust to help us plan."
"This isn't fair," Rinde pouted, "I'm the only jounin left! And Korii's only a new chuunin; he's still a rookie. How come he got to go?"
"Why do you think?" Deniizu asked, exasperated, done with and a little tired from her mind work, "Korii was responsible yesterday, walking with Gaara and trying to figure out how Gaara works, while all you've been doing is complain! Obviously, Gaara thought Korii would be more helpful. Gawd, you're so useless!"
"But I'm still strong!" Rinde exclaimed, frustrated.
"You haven't proved it, so you're not getting any special attention," Ino snapped, "Nobody gets rewarded without earning it somehow."
Rinde started to argue another point, but Daneiru spoke right over her.
"They need Korii's eyes," Daneiru said impatiently, "He's best suited for keeping a lookout for them, in case another person comes by. Your techniques are all for battle, Rinde; even if Gaara had seen you fight, you still couldn't help them."
Nothing subtle about Rinde, Shino thought, irritated with the constantly arguing girl, Neither in speech, action, nor fighting technique. ...What a pathetic ninja style. The only person who can pull that off is Naruto, and even he knows how to sneak around.
"And we need Hinata's eyes, which is why Gaara pointed her out," Michiko added, smiling at the friend in question, then got down to business again, "But either way, we all have to cooperate. It doesn't matter if you're tired or hate each other. We have to work together, or we're all trash. Got it?"
Rinde looked down sulkily, but Michiko was grateful when Deniizu nodded, even if it was stony.
"Any more complaints?" Michiko asked, looking around the group, and when there weren't any she turned to Shikamaru, "Do you have any ideas?"
"Mendokusai...why me?" Shikamaru yawned, "Daneiru's got more experience."
"You're the one with the famous advanced brain," Daneiru pointed out, "I'm more of a plan improvement guy. Now give us a plan, brainiac."
"Fine..." the deer-herder sighed then began to speak, "What I think is that we all should take care of our own teams, now that our teachers aren't here. Shino, your team's always been good at reconnaissance; I'd like for your team to keep a lookout for any new people that might be allied with whoever Gaara's meeting. We don't know if they're enemies or not, so we might as well stay on the safe side; I need you to walk around Gaara's group in as wide a range as you can."
"You sure that isn't just overkill?" Rinde piped up again, ignoring the glares that were being thrown her way, "The guy out there could just be a traveller that wants to keep to himself."
"We're ninja of the Hidden Leaf," Michiko answered, smiling mysteriously, "During battle, it doesn't matter how weak our opponent is; we won't underestimate them. We will fight all out."
...heh, Shino hid a (tiny) pleased smile behind his collar, She still remembers that? That was one of my first lessons for her.
"Hey, that's a good line," Ino nodded approvingly, "Where'd you learn that?"
"From someone special," Michiko shrugged, then realized Shikamaru was giving her a look.
"You want me to do this, or not?" Shikamaru asked.
"Sorry!" Michiko bowed slightly, "Go on."
With a shrug and a lazy, uncaring smile to Michiko, which counted as saying 'apology accepted', Shikamaru continued instructing Shino, "Your team must stay out of sight so that the person Gaara's talking to doesn't get scared off. Also, stay together; we can't afford to get separated right now. Another group will also be making rounds, so you take the further, northerly side, while the other group's got the south. Clear?"
"Understood," Shino said smoothly, looked at his two best friends, and with just one nod, they all jumped together into the trees.
"So," Shikamaru looked at Michiko and Daneiru, "You want to be lookouts like Team 8? Or do you want to focus on being Gaara's back-up? Back-up needs to try and move in close to where our sensei are. Shino's team would obviously guarding your backs; on the off-chance that either our sensei are attacked and need help, or the stranger is an enemy and escapes, your team would need to step in. But only when absolutely necessary; it's more than likely that our teachers will be able to handle whatever happens, but we can't be sure."
"Well," Michiko shared looks with Daneiru before turning back to the cloud-watcher, "Saneijin should probably stick with me, so staying far away from possible danger would be the wisest thing for my team to do. And with that IQ of yours, your team adapts the fastest to new situations, so you guys would probably be best at back-up."
"Such a big deal..." Shikamaru sighed loudly, then nodded, "Fine, fine."
"It's the Ino-Shika-Chou formation's time to shine!" Ino yelled to Deniizu, pumping a hand in the air.
"Shut up!" Deniizu exclaimed, clapping a hand over the ear that Ino had yelled into, "I'm right beside you!" Stupid blonde...!
"Oh! Sorry!" Ino clapped a hand over her mouth, "Uh...Ok, let's go!"
Dodging a sloppy punch from Deniizu, Ino jumped into the trees as fast as she could, hoping to avoid another show of temper from Deniizu. Chouji waved to Michiko, then he too jumped off the road, and with a nod, Shikamaru followed his teammates. Finally, Michiko took Saneijin off of his seat on Porthos, and got him to sit on her shoulders.
"You stick with me and guard my head, ok, Sanei-kun?" Michiko asked cheerfully.
"Yes, ma'am, Mimi-okaa!" Saneijin saluted, waving a practice kunai that Kiba or Gaara must have given to him.
Michiko started to lead the way into the forest, and immediately the slightly altered Team 13 started bantering with each other in hushed voices; they were a little nervous, so light talk helped them a little.
"So we've got the south side?" Yasha Daneiru whispered, raising an eyebrow eagerly at Michiko, "Team 13 to the rescue? A chance to show off my mad skills and rock-hard abs?"
"...How would you show off your abdominal muscles?" Michiko whispered back, her eye twitching.
"Duh. I take off my shirt during every battle," Daneiru answered, as if it were the most common thing that ninjas did.
"Ew..." Saneijin groaned, he, Porthos and D'Artagnan making similar faces.
"If that's the case, can I go and fight on my own?" Deniizu asked, teasingly, "I'd prefer not to have to gouge my eyes out after seeing something like that."
"Keep your shirt on," Michiko rolled her eyes, "Both of you. Please."
That was a horrible pun, Aramis sighed, riding on Porthos' back now that Saneijin had his usual spot.
"Oh, you wish you could see my abs," Daneiru said with mock arrogance.
"Hey, Linda, you usually hit Daniel at this point," Deniizu said, turning to her friend, "Did you grow up or some..."
The final three ninja and Saneijin looked around at every angle. The road and the space of forest that they had just walked across was empty.
"...thing...!" Deniizu finished, fishing through her weapon's pouch for her brass knuckles.
"Talaga...?" Michiko slipped into Philippino again.
"You can't be serious," Daneiru groaned, covering his face with his hands.
"How could you lose track of your girlfriend?" Michiko exclaimed in a hoarse whisper, stage-yelling into Daneiru's face.
"Shut up, kohai!" Daneiru countered in the same voice.
"Don't call Mimi-okaa your junior! She's smarter'n you!" Saneijin growled in a low voice.
"Shut up, gaki!" Daneiru growled back, his good mood gone.
Daneiru didn't deny it, D'Artagnan said to his brothers, stifling a snicker, Michi-chan's smarter than him.
"Don't call Sanei-kun a brat!" Michiko hissed, shaking a fist at her teammate.
"She must've gone to catch up to Korii and Inel-sensei," Deniizu realized, thinking quickly, and already leading the way, "Let's go!"
"No way!" Michiko shook her head stubbornly, "She wouldn't!"
No sooner were the words out of her mouth, when shouts from the forest were heard.
"Oi, Rinde! You moron!"
"What're you doing?! Inel-san, stop your student!"
"Whoa! Rinde, you almost stabbed me instead of the guy!"
"She would," Daneiru sighed, and all three ninja jumped hurriedly towards the rest of their group.
Esperwen: There. That's your Christmas present-cum-birthday gift-cum-peace offering-cum-apology chapter.
Naruto: Ne, Esu-chan. Am I alive?
Esperwen: I'll explain it in the last chapter! Just wait! And...hey, cool, Mitasco reviewed already. Thank you to all of you who are so patient with me! Now please review. Even if it's angry. I probably need the slap anyway.