Hi everyone. Thanks for the reviews :) Here's a new chapter, it's a little long...actually it's about twice as long as normal but I figured you wouldn't want me to stop in the middle of the action. I'm also warning you that this is the second to last chapter. So tomorrow you'll get the next one and a one shot that takes place after this. There will be a sequel but I haven't started it yet.
Hope you enjoy,
Trouble 1
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KIBA
For the first time in a couple days I was actually getting a decent night sleep, or at least I wasn't dreaming of Akamaru dying like all the other times. But then the idiot started yelling for the rest of us to wake up.
"What do you want?!" I said groggily as I sat up, glaring at the blond. "It better be important or I swear you'll be wishing it was."
"Look!" He said, pointing awkwardly to where Hinata was playing with a pile of bugs.
"They're bugs, Naruto. Not something to wake us up over."
"T-their Shino's bugs." Hinata said not looking up from whatever she was painting on the floor.
"But shino's not here..." I started to say before I realized why they were so excited. "You have the messaging stuff."
"Y-yeah, a bit." She said smiling. "E-enough to tell h-him were here a-and alive."
"Sweet! We're getting out of here!" I cheered happily before getting hit over the head by Sakura.
"Shut up baka! Do you want to alert those guys of our back up?!"
"No." I mumbled, rubbing my soar head. About then, the bugs flew away in multiple directions, each finding their own way back in order not to cause reason for suspicion.
"There." Hinata said slipping the now empty container into her shoe. "W-we should h-hear back in a c-couple minutes."
Then, after an eternity of waiting patiently, though they told me it was more like five minutes but oh well, the bugs started coming back, writing a message again in the dirt. It read the following:
/good, sending someone in. Won't be long./
We were all sat there, silently celebrating our imminent escape. We didn't dare shout out again for fear of the guards that could overhear. It wasn't long after that we heard a couple thunks outside, and the door started to open. We all tensed, seeing the signature black coat on the other side.
The man stepped forward, he being a guard we have never seen before. He had black hair hanging right below his shoulders. His eyes were a dark color which only accented the bored expression on his face.
"You four are troublesome, you know that?" The man asked, standing here bored.
"Shikamaru?!" Sakura exclaimed.
"You didn't recognize me, did you." He gave us a look as we all shook our heads. He muttered troublesome once again before pulling out a set of keys and started trying to unlock the cells. "That's what I get for letting Ino steal my hairband."
He unlocked outdoor, earning a hug from sakura.
"Thank you." She said ending the hug soon after. He just shook his head and turned towards the other cell and freezing.
"Let me guess, you've been causing trouble again, haven't you Naruto."
"How'd you guess?" My chained up comrade said as he smiled sheepishly.
"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer." Shika murmured as he began to unlock their cell as well. The door opened with a loud screech unlike ours did. We winced, hoping no one heard I as he went inside, searching for the key to his cuffs as well.
It didn't take long to find the smallest key in the bundle and unlock the baka's cuffs. He hissed in pain as his arms dropped limply to his sides, his wrists rubbed raw from his struggling. Sakura moved over to his side quickly, her hands glowing green, no doubt preforming some sort of diagnostic jutsu on our teammate.
"You really are an idiot, you know that." She said with a sigh. "You stretched out the mussels in your one arm while your others not far behind, your ribs are still fractured, and not to mention I'd consider you lucky if you have any skin left on your wrists at all."
"Sorry, Sakura." He said sheepishly. I stood guard for a bit while she worked on fixing the blond's arms, not wanting to be surprised in the least. After a couple minutes the glow faded from her hands as she stood up.
"There, that should be good for now. Kiba, can you help him up?" I nodded, about to move into the cell as well before I was stopped.
"It's alright, I think I can stand on my own." He said, gaining unbelieving looks from pretty much everyone. Despite that, he still began to climb to his feet, leaning heavily on the wall for support.
"See? I'm fine." He said, as he stood there, his leg shaking slightly even with his hand still on the wall. "Let's go." He went to take a step forward only to stumbled when his foot didn't quite listen to him. Luckily, Hinata was there to steady him.
"I-I got him." She said quietly, she slipped his hand across her shoulder so it was easier to help him. Strangely enough, she didn't blush as much as she usually did when she was that close to him.
"Thanks" he said quietly.
"We have to go." Shikamaru stated eyeing the door wearily. "We don't know when they will be back."
"Yeah, we've wasted enough time here as it is." Sakura spoke up. "So, Shika, can I assume you know how to get out of here?"
"No." He answered while he headed towards the door. "But the bugs do. If we follow them well be fine."
"Great, were trusting insects to lead us out of here."
"You trusted them to relay messages to us, what difference is there?"
"True."
"Can w-we leave n-now?" Hinata spoke up, making us realize that the pair of them were already at the door, waiting for us. "I w-want to g-get out of h-here before t-they notice." Shika nodded before turning to me.
"Are you well enough to fight?"
"Of course!" I shouted before getting shushed by Sakura via her fist.
"Good, then you go first and use your nose to sniff the guards out." Shikamaru ignored the display. "Sakura, you're in back. Hit anyone that comes up behind us."
"With pleasure." She said with a sadistic grin as she hit her fist against her palm.
"I'll be to the side, ready to catch anyone who gets past you two."
"What about us?" Naruto asked eagerly.
"You two will be in the center making sure were followingSshino's bugs."
"That sounds like busy work to me."
"It is." I pointed out bluntly, making the blond pout for a moment before we got in our appropriate places and headed out.
It was quiet as we followed the bugs, like everyone was asleep for some reason. At first I was thought this was great luck. I mean, in how many escape attempts still haven't run into a single person five minutes after they left the cells.
But, of course I had to be proved wrong when my nose picked up several people down the hall. Before I could shout out, a group of five appeared around the corner, locking eyes with us.
"Damn it!" One of them shouted as I mentally echoed his sentiments. The man began flipping through hand seals, but I wasn't going to let him finish the sequence. Instead I charged the man, throwing my fist at his head, hoping to hit something painful.
He dodged the blow, almost throwing me off balance. I growled angrily, but at least he was unable to complete his jutsu. I was vaguely aware of Sakura and Shikamaru joining the fight as I stared down my opponent. Neither one of us wanted to look away so the other didn't get an advantage.
Then, a large crash filled the room making my eyes flick over to Sakura as she punched one of the guards through the wall. By the time my eyes were back on my opponent, he had his foot only inches away from me. Said foot connected with my ribs with such force that I heard several cracks as I was sent tumbling down the hallway.
Once I came to a stop, I laid there for a moment, giving my mind time to catch up with my body. As soon as that happened, I began to get to my feet, only for me to bite back a yell as the pain caught up with me as well.
It was then that a foot slammed into my back, pushing me back to the floor. The foot stayed there, continuously putting pressure on my already hurt ribs.
"You really shouldn't have left your cage." The man's voice whispered in my ear, putting more of his body weight on me as he spoke. "That's where the dogs stay after all."
"Screw you." I said through gritted teeth as he laughed. I struggled to get up again, only to be smashed into the ground yet again.
"I thought you'd put up more of a fight." He said, almost to himself. "Most experiments slated to be scrapped do."
"Scrapped? What the hell-" he interrupted my question by stomping on my spine.
"That means you and the pink haired bitch are going to die anyways, so killing you now will be more of a favor than not. After all, at least this way you'd die fighting like a true ninja, even if it was a pretty pathetic battle."
Before I could even think to struggle again, I felt the cool, sharp metal of a kunai against my throat, freezing any movements I was ever thinking of doing.
"You should really thank me for this. Most don't even get this much." He whispered in my ear. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the inevitable. It was then that I heard a growl and the force on my back suddenly disappeared with a crash.
My eyes shot open to see the man that was about to kill me being mauled by a huge white dog. A huge white, very recognizable dog.
"Akamaru!" I shouted happily, struggling to get to my feet. Akamaru turned towards me, barked then tackled me back to the ground licking my face. "Thank kami your all right!"
"Aww, how touching. A boy and his dog." Sakura said, standing next to the bodies of two unconscious me.
"Boy? I don't see a boy. Maybe two dogs, but definitely not a boy and a dog." A voice said, coming from down the hall. Only seconds later, Ino appeared with Shino and Neji by her side.
"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked the three of them.
"We saw that you ran into some trouble, so we came to help." Neji said flatly. "But apparently the only one that needed help was Kiba."
"Come on! Why does everyone have to rag on me all the time?!" I demanded, barely sounding angry.
"Because of moments like this." Ino said, simply. "Akamaru took down your opponent faster than he took you down. And from what Neji told us, that's pretty impressive."
"Whatever, let's just go." I said, grabbing Akamarus fir to help me to my feet, but before I got that far my ribs started screaming, making me want to follow suit. I hissed and sunk to my knees, still gripping his fur.
"Alright, you ride Akamaru or we'll never get out of here." Sakura said, as she began to help me onto his back. "Now, Akamaru, try not to jostle him much, I don't have time to check how bad he is." My dog nodded his understanding.
"Where's Hinata?" Neji asked, making us all stop and look around. She was, in fact, gone along with Naruto. Seeing our confusion, he activated his bycugan, immediately searching the grounds for them.
"Do you see them?" Sakura asked, sounding worried.
"Yes, they went down the corridor to the right."
"Then let's go." Sakura said, starting towards the hallway indicated before getting stopped my Neji.
"No, you two have to get out of here. Ino and I will go bring them out as well." He said, sternly.
"I'm not leaving my only teammate in there!"
"It's our mission to rescue you, it's better if you let us do that job." Sakura paused for a moment, before nodding.
"Alright, Ino, help Neji get the other two." Shikamaru said, starting to delegate jobs. "Shino, keep a few bugs with them so they can make their way back here. Kiba, don't die."
I flicked him off as Ino and Neji took off down the hallway towards our teammates.
"Were already almost above ground so it won't be long now." He told us, starting towards the exit. "The faster were out of here, the faster we get home."
The next five minutes, we traveled up the corridor, rather painfully for me because of the ribs. It wasn't long before we were out of underground and could see the door leading to the outside
As soon as we saw the light from that doorway, we all started moving faster, eager to be out from under the ground. Sakura and I, being the only two in the group who haven't seen the sun in the past few hours, had to practically close our eyes just to insure we didn't go blind.
"We'll wait in the woods over there until either the guards go looking for us or the other gets out." We all nodded in agreement with Shikamaru and headed towards the trees. Not having to really having to move at all to get there, I closed my eyes in order to enjoy the non-musty air and the warmth of the sun shining.
I must have dozed off at some point because the next thing I knew I was laying under a tree as Sakura worked on healing my ribs.
"That's the best I can do for now." She whispered, in order not to bring unwanted attention to our group. "You're going to have to wait till we get to Konoha for the rest."
"Ok, thanks." I murmured as I sat up, finding it easier and a bit less painful to do so.
We sat there for a while, waiting for our teammates to come running out of there so we could leave. But as each minute passed, there was still no sign of them.
We sat there, twittling our thumbs for close to 10 minutes before anything changed. That was when the hundred or so bugs that shino left behind came zooming out of the exit in one huge swarm. Ok it wasn't huge, but seeing as they were supposed to be leaving in 5 bug groups, it was huge.
"What's wrong shino?" Shika asked, as the bugs reentered the hive mind and said teen processed what they were telling him.
"The personnel are leaving the complex." He said simply.
"Are they trying to follow us?"
"No, they're ...evacuating."
"Why?" Sakura asked, looking as if she had a bad feeling about it.
"Explosives, they rigged explosives throughout the underground."
"Damn, I should have guessed." Shika mumbled to himself before informing us of his revelation. "They probably figured that they wouldn't be able to catch us all, especially if we broke up into groups, so they're destroying the facility so they not only take out as many of us as possible but also so we don't know where they're hideout is anymore."
"But the others are still in there!" Sakura pointed out, almost desperately. But before any of us could say anything to her, there was a large boom and the ground began to rumble under our feet. The small hut that was our exit blew up, turning into small wooden projectiles. We each dove for cover, unsure whether they'd be able to reach us. A few of the splinter sized pieces imbedded themselves at our feet but other than that we were out of harm's way. We took a collective sigh of relief before realizing exactly what happened.
"NARUTO!" Sakura shouted, lunging for the rubble. It was all I could do to hold her back. "Let go! They could still be in there!"
"Sakura stop!" Shika tried to calm her down as I struggled to keep her from running up there and getting herself caught in whatever blast that had yet to go off. "Even if they're still alive, we can't get to them if the entrance is gone."
She still struggled to get away, desperate to help our comrades. But I didn't let go despite her elbows continuously jabbing into my still broke ribs. Shika was just starting to get her to calm down when Shino decided to open his big mouth. Sakura had to help her to our hiding spot.
"My bugs say there's life signs before the blocked off caves." This made the pink haired girl struggle so much I couldn't hold her back any longer.
"Akamaru, go dig them out." Shikamaru ordered as I pretty much collapsed back onto the ground, my ribs probably mirroring what they were before. He barked in agreement before darting over to the rubble, quickly overtaking sakura and was already digging when she reached him. When she got there, she started digging right beside him, eager to uncover our friends.
It wasn't long before they were able to uncover two people, one blond and the other a Huuga. But even from where I was sitting, I could see the disappointment on her face when Naruto and Hinata where not among them. Neji and Ino were both relatively fine considering they were just in an epicenter of an explosion. Neji had a few burns and Ino a broken leg so Sakura had to help her over to where we were hiding.
"We have to leave." Shikamaru pointed out as soon as they got back.
"But we haven't found Naruto and Hinata yet." Sakura protested looking about ready to head back to the rubble and start digging again.
"Tsunade will have to send a team out when we get back." He pointed out simply. "Over half of us are wounded or in an early state of malnutrition and need to be treated as soon as possible. It's going to take long enough to get home as it is."
"But..." she tried to complain, but couldn't find anything to say.
"If they're still alive, Naruto will be able to keep them that way till someone comes back for them. He's good at that."
She nodded in agreement, finally agreeing with us.