I have no real excuse other than saying real life can make you lose inspiration to do what you would like to do.
Again, it's been close to a year since last update.
And yes, I do indeed tend to contradict myself many times of what I am actually doing with this story. Bad habit.
Also, all chapters have been edited, things changed to what they need to be. Corrections made on mistyped conversations, details, and such.
-oO0-o)0(o-0Oo-
Kiba, Shino, and Gaara. Time: Late Afternoon. Place: Angra Mainyu
Shino
We stopped to catch our breath just at the edge of the swamp. The monsters that had followed after us had been able to get past the sand wall Gaara had placed up. They were dangerously fast, able to catch up with us even with the time we had getting ahead.
"GAH! What are these things made of?" Kiba growled as he jumped away from one of the monsters almost getting sliced. It did not seem like he made much damage, although he did manage to knock quite a few into the bog.
Gaara and Temari managed better than Kiba, while I was able to keep the creatures away from us that tried to come at our sides.
"Gaara, Temari, Kiba. We should head deeper into the swamp." I suggested as I jumped back landing near them. Gaara looked to me and nodded then turned and headed deeper in. I waited until Temari, Kiba, and Akamaru headed after Gaara before I followed.
After a few minutes of running, I turned to look back then stopped. "Wait." My friends stopped and looked to me. "They have not followed."
"Are you sure about that Shino?" Kiba glared at me clearly unhappy.
"Do you see them?" I asked him. He looked around me then shook his head. "Perhaps they do not like the swamp…"
"Oh what kind of conclusion is-"
"You are right, Shino." A familiar voice interrupted Kiba and we turned to see Shikamaru with Neji standing before us. I stared concerned if this was the real Shikamaru and Neji, but Akamaru and Kiba both started growling. That instant I knew they had to be the clones. I placed my hands up with my insects ready to come out, but Shikamaru placed a hand up making my eyes narrow. "You're pointing that in the wrong direction." He said with a grin.
Strong winds suddenly accumulated behind us. Turning quickly I saw Temari swing her fan and blast me, Gaara, Kiba, and Akamaru through the trees. Somehow without my notice Temari had gotten behind us. As I collided with a tree I heard it crack and fall over. My body hurt some, but thanks to my insects at the last second they covered my body as a shield so I took less damage.
"Hehehe. I'm surprised you thought I was her. Tch. Only the mutt knew." It was Temari's voice and in response I heard Akamaru growl. I was slightly disoriented and opened my eyes to see sand swirl out and after Temari. She dodged easily and swung her fan again to repel the sand, only to be attacked from behind. Quickly I scanned the area with my eyes even though that made my head hurt. Kiba and Akamaru were engaged with the Shikamaru and Neji clones, and they were winning while Gaara and Temari fought with no indication of who was winning there.
With the help of my insects, I got up and ran toward Kiba in order to help, but the instant I went to strike Shikamaru I froze. My hand was inches from his face, but I could not move. He must have stopped me with his jutsu, so on command I told my insects to wrap around Shikamaru. His eyes widen as they swarmed around him and I was able to move again. As they took care of him I turned to see where Neji had gone, but only to see Kiba and Akamaru unconscious on the ground.
"Kiba!" I ran towards him but sudden pain in the back of my neck made me fall over. I coughed several times realizing I had become careless. Neji must have gotten behind me and struck. As I tried to get up a foot slammed into my back pushing me down and my face right into the bog. I started to suffocate as the swamp water filled my mouth.
The back of my head was grabbed and I was pulled out of the water. I coughed greatly as I struggled to get out of the grip, but in result my head was forced back under the water. Again, water filled my mouth and started to burn my lungs as I was held under. I heard what sounded like voices before I was brought out of the water, and thrown to the side.
"I was having fun." I heard Neji's voice to my right. It was coated with a sadistic tone.
"I saw, but you can't be killing him. Remember that? Even if his insects are viciously nasty." Shikamaru's voice addressed Neji's with obvious authority.
"Yes, I understand Shikamaru-sama." I coughed trying to get water out of my mouth and slowly began to sit up, but was forced to the ground. "Can't have you moving." I felt too sick to communicate with my insects. I struggled, but suddenly felt pain to my neck and I hit the ground vision going dark.
-oO0-o)0(o-0Oo-
Ino and Lee. Time: Unknown. Place: Unknown.
Ino
"Lee… I think we're lost." I sighed sliding against a wall. Lee stopped what he was doing and came toward me kneeling down.
"I am sure this is the right way though, Ino-san. This path does not look familiar." Right way my ass. I looked up at Lee giving him a look of disdain. He backed away from me then sighed.
After we had escaped from our cell it had been nothing but endless tunnels of icky webs, bugs, spiders, moss, and all the other sort of disgusting things. I was glad for our light source, although that was going out. I would have used my Mind Transfer Jutsu if it wasn't the fact that all the creatures in here were disgusting things. I had no intention of sharing the body of one of those.
Sighing, I slowly got to my feet and looked around. "Hey, Lee… Have you noticed that no one has come after us?" Lee turned to me, surprise on his face. "I mean, we made such a loud noise when escaping that they would have immediately came after us right?"
"That is what I had thought as well, Ino-san, but it seems as if we have been lucky so far."
"Lucky… or…" My eyes widen and I looked around frantically. "Lee! What if they let us escape on purpose?"
"What would be their gain in doing that?"
"I don't know! But look, they left us this light and you were easily able to break out of your ropes. Think about it. If there was a fake Neji and Shikamaru then there must definitely be fake ones of us too. Meaning that they would definitely know our strengths and weaknesses…" I concluded dreadfully.
Lee's expression became one of understanding and he placed a hand to his chin. "That does make sense. Maybe we should outsmart them!" I gave him a weird expression "If they want us to escape then we will just let them think we are trying to do just that."
"Huh? I don't get what you mean…"
"In a sense we are trying to escape, but we need to outsmart them as we escape. When they try to capture us again, we will be prepared for whatever method they use!" He grinned at me. It… sort of made sense, although it was a weird logic.
"I guess we can go-" Suddenly I felt the ground below me disappear and I screamed as I grabbed the side of the wall. I felt Lee's hands grab mine and pull me up. I turned to see a hole where I had just been. "Maybe we should move…"
"Right!" Lee held onto my hand and we began to run.
Soon, we began to run into many dead-ends and tunnels that were too small to use. At one point we had to stop completely because our only way to go had holes forcing us to back track. Eventually we came right back where we had started: Our cell.
I groaned and fell to my butt. "This is hopeless! We've been going in circles…"
"Just like how we wanted." My eyes widen and I looked up at the sound of Shikamaru's voice then the tunnel we had come from abruptly collapsed forcing us to be stuck in the cell. I stood up quickly and glared at Shikamaru.
"Why make us do that then?" I asked, very angry. Lee came to my side and gripped his hands.
Shikamaru blinked slowly at me then grinned. "For fun."
"What? For fun? How sadistic can you be!" I was really starting to hate this Shikamaru. I wanted the one I knew back.
"Not as sadistic as Neji." He laughed then pulled up the steel bars. I braced myself for an attack, although what came rushing down at us surprised me.
"Ah! Ino-san it is Kiba-kun, Akamaru, Gaara-kun, and Shino-kun!" I blinked several times then knelt next to them. They were unconscious. I looked up at Shikamaru glaring as he dropped the bars, locking them.
"What have you done to them, Shikamaru?"
"Just knocked them at. No worries Ino… We aren't killing them… yet." With another laugh he walked off. I gripped my hands then began to administer first aid to the four.
-oO0-o)
Kiba
Where…am I? I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. It was dark. I couldn't see anything except a flicker of light that was very dim. Groaning I slowly sat up.
"Ah! Kiba-kun is awake." My head turned to the right at the sound of my name. Squinting my eyes and sniffing the air I tried to figure out who it was.
"…Lee?"
"HOSH! Correct, Kiba-kun!" Yeah, definitely Lee. I sniffed around. I smelled the scents of Gaara, Shino, Akamaru, and Ino. I also smelled the scents from the temple we had first came into. Rubbing my head I closed my eyes with a groan.
"Where are we?"
"It's a stupid cell that the fake Shikamaru and Neji threw us in." Ino answered my question.
"Great. How do we get out?"
"We don't. Lee and I already tried and we ended back here." I heard Ino sigh in frustration. I mumbled and fell backwards lying on my back.
Several minutes later Gaara and Shino woke up. They asked the same things I did to Ino who was irritated. Akamaru rubbed his head against mine before lying with me. It was silent in the cell, and the air was tense. I gripped my hands feeling frustrated then got up with Akamaru standing with me. Everyone looked at me giving me a look. I turned to Akamaru and nodded to him before getting down on all fours.
"Everyone move to a safe corner!" I commanded as Akamaru changed into his man-beast form. Shino stood up and frowned while everyone else moved away.
"Kiba, we will gain attention if we do that. I have already sent out my insects to-"
"Too slow!" I interrupted Shino then took a deep breath and looked upward.
"GATSUGA!" Akamaru and I flew into the walls trying to do as much damage as we could. Dust flew everywhere and eventually we came to a stop. I looked around as the dust settled and my eyes widened.
We barely did anything. I growled and nodded to Akamaru and tried again. Same result. We kept trying until we were exhausted. I fell down breathing hard while Akamaru turned back. Shino only shook his head at me making me sneer in his direction.
"Pathetic." I growled again and was going to attack whoever said, but then I realized it had come from above. I looked up quickly to see Neji grinning at me. With a quick leap I jumped up, grabbed the bars, reached through, and grabbed Neji by his shirt collar. His eyes widened as he tried to pull away.
"I'd like to see you say that to my face again!" I gripped harder and pulled him down more trying to get a better grip, but he pulled out a kunai and cut off what I was holding and jumped away. I snarled at him and hung there. "Get back here you coward!"
"Kiba! Get down." It was Shino. No way was I gonna listen to him. I shook at the bars trying to break through them. Not working.
"My, my so hot-headed." Temari's voice floated over and I saw her appear, but not near the bars. I glared at her not responding. "You won't get out of there. It's specialized in such a way to prevent any of your type of jutsus form working."
"Tch! I think I can give you a lesson on jutsus working or not. Get down here and I'll demonstrate!" I grinned and stayed hanging on the bars. She laughed and shook her head.
"I'm not that stupid boy."
"No? I just thought you were some stupid blond. Obviously you can't think for yourself if you're getting in trouble left to right. You can't even follow-" Suddenly the bars opened up as I was hanging onto it. It was unexpected so as the bar came up so did I, but at the speed it did I was thrown across the room and into a wall. I heard the bars shut back down. Groaning in protest I slowly sat up and glared over.
Temari came over and picked me up by my throat shoving me against the wall. My eyes widened and I gripped her hand digging nails in to try and get myself free. I was vaguely aware of the voices of my friends from below, and it made me struggle greater.
"Temari!" Shikamaru yelled and everyone became silent. The grip on my neck loosened then let go. I dropped to my knees coughing several times. I looked up with a fierce look of hate in my eyes. Shikamaru came up to Temari who looked at him angrily. "Control your temper! Or so help me I will kill you here." There was such authority in Shikamaru's voice that it frightened me slightly. Temari bowed her head then gripped her hands walking away from me, but remaining near. Shikamaru came over to me, pulled me to my feet, and then dropped me back into the cell. Akamaru caught me and whimpered. I coughed again and Ino came over checking me over.
Gaara came over and looked up through the bars. "What are you going to do with us?"
"Leave you there until your double comes to kill you." Shikamaru answered.
"You plan to kill us all at once?"
"Something like that."
"What will you do? You cannot kill Shikamaru." Shikamaru gave a frown at Gaara and blinked slowly then smirked.
"Who told you that?"
"We heard buddy!" I lifted my fist into the air. I heard a laugh and saw Temari come into view.
"Oh, yes of course. Silly boys. That wasn't real." I frowned at her. "What you heard between me and Kumo Konjou-sama was all an act to throw you off! With that information it led you exactly where we wanted, and we got you exactly how you are now."
Standing up straight I was about to jump back up, but Shino held me back shaking his head. Gaara took a deep breath and stared up blankly. "Are you going to gather everyone up and bring us all back to the temple?"
"Yes. Now be good little boys and girls and wait for your friends to arrive." Shikamaru and Temari walked off leaving us to think. I plopped to the floor placing a hand to my chin with a glum expression.
"So… we're all going to die…?" I heard Ino utter weakly. I looked over at her then down. Gripping my other hand I slowly stood up.
"No. We're going to get out of here and back home!" She looked at me with uncertainty. Lee gave me a thumbs up.
"Kiba-kun is right! We will definitely get out of here." Ino looked between both of us.
"What makes you two so sure?" I grinned at her and cracked my knuckles.
"Because. Our friends are out there, and they're not going to give up, so we shouldn't either. They obviously have to move us out of this cell to kill us, right? Well that's when we take our chance and strike!" I looked up and through the bars. "There is no way they can take us all down. They may look like us, have our abilities, but they aren't us! They're arrogant thinking they've already won, and oh how wrong they are."
-oO0-o)0(o-0Oo-
Tenten and Choji. Time: Evening. Place: Morton
Tenten
I groaned several times as I felt the swaying of my legs. Opening my eyes I looked up to see Lee's face. "Lee?" I mumbled. He came to a stop and looked down at him giving me a smile.
"Thank goodness you are awake, Tenten! I was beginning to worry after that attack. You have been asleep for so long." His voice was cheerful, and hurt my ears.
"What… attacked?" I couldn't recall what he was talking about.
"When we were at the lake, Tenten-san." Choji's head came into my view. He had a worried expression on his face. "Those strange monsters attacked us. We were almost outnumbered then Kankuro-san saved us."
Kankuro? He's here? I felt my face warm up as Kankuro's face came into view. He smiled down at me. "Lee… Put me down. I can walk." Lee placed me down and I brushed myself off then looked around. "Where are we?"
"I think the desert land." Kankuro answered me making me turn to him. "After I saved you guys at the lake, Choji showed me where you guys were trying to head to. It's taken us across this place which I think is called Morton according to that map. I think if we keep heading in this direction it will lead us to Cyth."
"Oh good. Hopefully Itzal is still there…" I breathed a sigh of relief that we were out of danger and still heading in the right direction.
"Itzal?" Kankuro asked with a frown on his face.
"Oh it's the boy we are trying to find." Choji answered before me. "We think he's the younger brother of that kunoichi that brought us here."
"And you want to go and find him? If she's the one that caused this mess than he can't be any better than her!"
"Wait, Kankuro." I came in front of him. "Alysa isn't bad. I think she was just under the influence of the creepy spider spirit." He raised an eyebrow at me.
"Really? How did you come to that conclusion?" I nodded to Choji and he brought out the notebook we found at the house. Then I began to explain to Kankuro everything we had concluded. Eventually he understood and sighed.
"Great. So there's someone running around looking like me. Tch. Guess I'll just have to go and kill them."
"You think that's wise, Kankuro-san?" Lee asked. "They are us. What if that has a bad affect?" Kankuro slowly turned to Lee and gave him a blank expression.
"What kind of affect would that be?"
"We could cause a corrupt in Time causing all of the parallel worlds coming to a crashing end! We'd be stuck in a world of nothing to where we will eventually die, and this world will collapse with us!"
We all stared at him blankly before I hit him hard on the head.
"Lee! Stop making up weird things! You're starting to freak me out every time you do that." I frowned at him. He rubbed his head and smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry Tenten…"
"Now that the idiot has confirmed what will NOT happen. Can we go?" I looked at Kankuro and gave him a nod. He turned and began walking. "I can't tell you the distance or how long it's going to take to get to Cyth though…"
"Well that's okay." I came up next to Kankuro. "As long as we can get there." Confident, I picked up my pace in hopes to get there faster. I really hoped that Itzal was in good hands and safe.
-oO0-o)0(o-0Oo-
Shikamaru, Itzal, Sasuke, Sakura, Temari, Hinata, Naruto, and Kankuro
Time: Early Morning. Place: Cyth
Shikamaru
"Alright. Now that we've encountered Kiba and Akamaru I think it's about time we move out." I suggested as everyone began to wake up.
"What about Neji and Alysa?" Naruto asked me as he stretched. "Are we going to leave them behind?" I shook my head at him.
"Neji can find us anytime, plus he has Alysa with him so she'll have an idea where we plan to head out."
"And where exactly is that?" Sasuke asked me coming up next to Naruto.
Closing my eyes I tried to recall the areas Alysa had told us about. Céleste was out of the way to go to since we had already got confirmation from Temari that there was no one else in that city besides the three she had came with. We already thoroughly checked Cyth and Nereza. That left the lake, forest, desert, river, bogs, and…
"The swamp." I opened my eyes and turned to Kiba. "Maybe we should try there."
"The swamp? Are you serious Kiba? Shikamaru said there was no one there already." Naruto made a face at Kiba whom glared back at Naruto. I sighed and shook my head. Going to the swamp wasn't exactly my first choice, but the temple was there. If we could find any information it could be at that temple. Although Neji and Alysa said they were heading to Alysa's home to get information on our clones. I could change my mind and make us stay here and wait for them, but we needed to keep moving. We still had to find Gaara, Ino, Choji, Lee, Tenten, and Shino. That was six people… and they could be anywhere.
Kiba and Naruto started to argue aimlessly while Sasuke and Hinata tried calming them down. Ignoring them, I took out the Myths of Kumo Konjou and flipped to the back looking at the map. Itzal came up next to me and looked over my shoulder at the book. I traced with my finger where we were and where we had been. Looking at the map carefully I noticed how the river connected too many areas, not just Céleste. Perhaps we could follow that, it might lead to areas where we could find our friends. I decided that was the best course before closing the book.
"We are going to follow Avdima River?" Itzal asked me. I turned to him and gave a small nod then stood up and waved my hands at Naruto, Kiba, Sasuke, and Hinata.
"Hey you four. Pay attention. I figured out where we are heading." As I spoke they stopped arguing and looked at me. "We're going to follow the river. Besides giving us a supply of water, it also connects with different places."
"Eh. I guess that makes sense…" Kiba mumbled and glared at Naruto from the corner of his eye. Obviously their argument was far from over. I told everyone else that hadn't been in the house where we were heading before waiting outside for everyone to get ready. I leaned against the house and stared up at the dark snowy sky.
Footsteps approached me and I gave a smile knowing who it was. Temari's head softly lay on my shoulder, and her hand reached down grabbing mine. She intertwined our fingers together before leaning the rest of her body against mine. I laid my head on top of hers before closing my eyes. Her sweet smell drifted to my nose making me completely relax, and forget what was going on at this very moment. I never wanted this feeling to end.
What seemed like ages had only been moments as our friends began to gather outside of the house. I forced myself out of the comfort and stood up straight looking around at everyone.
They all had serious expressions on their faces. Some with fear in their eyes, others with confidence. Whatever emotion shown in their eyes, there was one emotion they all shared. Trust. They all trusted me to get us out of here and safely home even though it was my fault we had been brought to this place.
No. That was wrong to think. It was Kumo Konjou who had brought us here and wanted us dead. Looking at everyone I turned my back and began to walk out of Cyth. Their trust gave me courage to lead them home.
-oO0-o)
Finally, the river. I sat down next to it and took a few gulps. Luckily for us it hadn't started snowing giving us a clear walk to the river. Everyone was resting around me while Hinata, Naruto, and Sakura went off to find food. Sasuke and Kankuro kept constant watch around us. Itzal stayed near Sasuke seeming to attach to him, which seemed odd to me. The only persons that stayed away from the others were Kiba and Akamaru. I narrowed my eyes at them before standing up.
"Is it time to head out again?" Temari asked me. I looked down at her and shook my head. Then whispered to her.
"I think there is something off with Kiba. He tried calling me Shikamaru-sama while in Cyth." Temari blinked at me then frowned. "I'm thinking he's the clone."
"A clone?" She glanced toward Kiba and gave a small glare. "Should we interrogate him then?"
"I would, but that might result in him attacking us. With Kiba, he can do some damage even with all of us here. As Alysa said, we can't kill anyone else's clones, only our own. That makes it harder to do damage to him." I sighed and began to walk towards Kiba. "I will, however; get him to confirm my suspicious without him…" I stopped walking when I saw Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata running toward us with a panic look on their faces.
"Shikamaru-san!" Hinata came up to me breathing in and out quickly. Everyone else came up and surrounded the three concerned. "Someone is approaching. It's a group of four people. I don't know who they are though."
"Is there no way to tell?" Kiba asked. Hinata shook her head at him. "Then we'll just have to face them head on! Which way are they coming from?" Hinata pointed behind her and Kiba turned to go in that direction.
"Kiba, stop." I commanded with high authority in my voice and he froze immediately. "Don't be an idiot and get yourself killed. Stay with the group." He gave me a slight nod, but remained silent. I got my confirmation. I walked up to Kiba and placed a hand on his shoulder turning him around.
"Now what?" He asked avoiding my eyes.
"Where is everyone else?" I was getting straight to the point. He looked at me confused.
"What are you talking about?"
"Yeah what are you talking about Shikamaru?" Naruto asked coming up next to me. "Like Kiba is going to know the answer to that."
"Shut up Naruto!" I glared at him and he flinched before glaring back then I turned back to Kiba. "I know who and what you are. Stop pretending." Kiba stared at me for a long time before a small grin came to his face.
"I guess I screwed that up, eh?" He shoved me away and jumped away with Akamaru. "Just because you know won't get you anywhere!"
"What's going on here?" Sasuke and Naruto asked at the same time.
"This isn't the Kiba we know!" I answered gripping my hands. "It's his clone." Everyone turned toward Kiba and got into an attack position. He laughed at us and leaned forward on Akamaru.
"Aggressive bunch aren't you? If I hadn't screwed up with your name, Shikamaru-sama, you all would have been completely oblivious!" He laughed again and stared at us lazily.
Sakura went to attack him, but Sasuke grabbed her in time. I sighed relief. "We can't attack him… That's for Kiba to do."
"Grr. He's pissing me off though! Acting so arrogant…" Sakura gripped her hands but didn't move again.
"Aw, poor little Sakura is getting mad." He was trying to antagonize her to attack, but with Sasuke holding Sakura's arm he wasn't about to get through. "Ya know Shikamaru-sama… if you had just followed my advice you would have been right with your friends."
I frowned. What advice was that? I wondered before it hit me. Earlier he had mentioned to head to the swamps.
"The swamps huh. So that's it." I shook my head. "You were leading us into a trap. If we had chosen that route, Kumo Konjou would have us exactly where he wanted."
"Oh! Smart, smart." All the while we were arguing I forgot about Hinata's warning. Four people came up next to Kiba and Akamaru tensed up and ready to attack.
Tenten, Choji, Lee… and Kankuro. Great. Another clone. I heard both of the Kankuro's gasp.
"Kiba… is that…" The Kankuro on Kiba's side began to ask. Kiba turned to Kankuro and gave a grin.
"No use acting innocent. They already figured it out." Kankuro's face went from shock to a horrible grin. Quickly without warning he grabbed Tenten from behind and placed a kunai to her throat.
"Wah! Wh-what are you doing, Kankuro?" Tenten, not understanding that the Kankuro holding her was a fake didn't struggle. She looked between the two Kankuro's with a scared expression. "Why… is there two of you… Is that the clone over there?" He knelt close to her ear and whispered into it. Her eyes widened and she began to struggle. With a nod to Sasuke he vanished and appeared next to Kankuro and struck out his hand to attack, but Lee came out of nowhere and kicked him away.
"Hosh! Not a chance Sasuke-kun." He grinned then went over and grabbed Choji. Who struggled in his grasp before being knocked unconscious. Sasuke growled and Naruto appeared next to him. Kankuro looked at the two and held the kunai closer to Tenten's neck.
"Move any closer and she dies. One death isn't too hard to deal with. Now slowly turn around and-"
"Kankuro let her go!" At the command of my voice he did and took a step back. With the opening Tenten grabbed Choji and jumped away from Lee, Kankuro, and Kiba clones. Kankuro waved his fist in the air as Tenten came over to Sakura.
"Heh. Figuring out that Shikamaru-sama leads us and that we obey him, are you? You're definitely very intelligent. Well since I'm here I might as well take care of my double." Cracking his neck he stepped forward and motioned a hand toward Kankuro. Kankuro took a few steps forward and placed a hand on one of his scrolls. "Ready to die?"
"Only if you die first."
I looked between them and everyone tensed up and backed away slowly from the two Kankuro's. Since we weren't allowed to kill him all we could do was watch. The only time I would think to interfere if our Kankuro was going to get the death blow.
A sudden red blaze of the sun flooded across the snowy lands turning the snow to a blood red. At that instant the two puppeteers charged toward each other ready to start a puppet hell.
-oO0-o)0(o-0Oo-
Neji and Alysa. Time: Morning. Place: Agana, Alysa's home.
Neji
"They're gone!" Alysa shouted in frustration as she fell to her knees to the dark room. We had finally came to her home, much to my surprise at the burnt damage. I had anticipated this because she had told me, but not to the extent it was. I came up next to her and looked around.
"Do you suppose my clone came and took it?" I asked as I knelt next to her. She stared at the floor not answering. I sighed and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Alysa." At the sound of her name she looked up at me. "Relax. Let me look around to see if I can find anything to indicate who came here." She only gave me a slight nod and turned to looking at the floor. I got up and headed outside first.
Looking around the home I found a vegetable garden that had its vegetables recently taken. Finding nothing else I came back in and looked around the kitchen. Signs of someone trying to cook something were present, so was the indication that two people had been here. I walked to the back of the home coming to two doors and a blockage of snow. Looking to my left and right I saw two doors with the names Itzal and Alysa. Their rooms…I wonder how much damage was these have taken. I entered Itzal's room first seeing only that one person had entered before I carefully opened Alysa's door.
Unlike her brother's room, hers was not burnt and two people had been in here. Noting this in my head I headed back to Alysa and knelt down next to her.
"Alysa… I think I can conclude that the people that were in this home were not clones." She looked up at him having a flicker of hope in her eyes.
"Then… who?" She finally spoke, although her voice was low. I shook my head not knowing.
"All I can say is that someone tried to cook food here, and took a look around themselves. I doubt any clone would need to cook food, and if they were coming for those documents then they wouldn't have needed to look through your brother's room and yours." She gave a frown at me then her eyes widen and she got up quickly heading toward the rooms. I followed after her as she looked into Itzal's room then her own. She gave a better inspection of her room then slumped down in front of a drawer.
Coming over to her I placed a hand on her. She looked up at me. "Neji-kun… They took my brother's dolls, and photograph of my family…"
"Why would they take those?" I looked around the room wondering again why it wasn't burnt. "And why is your room and the black room the only ones not burnt?" She slowly got up then went over and sat on her bed; I came over and sat next to her waiting for an explanation.
"Your first question… What you said is probably right and your friends somehow found a way into the Neji-sama's room…" Whenever she referred to my clone she called him Neji-sama. That made it easier for me to know who she was talking about. "They may have realized my brother was in danger and took his dolls to him. Since he fled to Cyth we could have just missed them. And the reason that room is not burnt is because of the precious information held in there…" She curled up and stared at the floor.
"Did… my clone burn your home?" I dared to ask when she paused. She gave a light nod. "And he didn't burn your room…?"
"Because he had wanted me alive. He tried to burn the home while we were all sleeping in hopes to kill my parents and Itzal without trouble, but… we all awoke and Itzal got away… My parents however…" She gripped her legs and placed her head down. "They were turned into Harvestmen. You attacked my father when we came onto Cyth. He was the Harvestman about to attack Itzal, Sasuke-kun, and Sakura-san."
I bit my lip and looked away. "I'm sorry."
"It's… okay. There is no way to reverse the process. Even if there was it would probably kill them." Giving a deep breath she raised her head up and looked to me. "That photograph of my family had Neji-sama in it. That could be why your friends took it."
"Hmm… that could mean that Lee or Tenten, or perhaps both of them had been here. They would be the only ones very interested in that."
"They are your closest friends?" I gave her a nod. "Then that's probably how they got access into Neji-sama's room. You need to say your name in order to get into that room."
"I see…" And with that a silence fell between us and the only noise was the crisp snow falling from the trees. After several minutes I got up and stretched. "Should we head back to Cyth then?" I asked softly.
"No, Shikamaru-kun would have left already. We should find him with your Byakugan. I imagine they would not be too far from the forest." She got up and straightened her clothing before going to a drawer and pulling out some clothes. She looked to me then away with her face brightening up. I blinked at her then realized what she wanted me to do. I blushed and left the room closing the door behind me.
A few minutes later she came out of the room with a gown that was meant for snowy weather. I stared at her then away scratching the back of my head. The gown looked beautiful on her. Clearing my throat, and shaking my head wondering why I was thinking such thoughts, I headed into the kitchen with her following. As we exited and headed out into the forest she grabbed my arm.
"Neji-kun… I have a bad feeling." I stopped and looked at her.
"About what?" She shook her head. I looked around and then focused. "Byakugan!" With my kekkei genkai activated I looked around the forest and reached far out as I could. What chakra I sensed surprised me. Spiders.
"What did you see, Neji-kun?" Alysa asked me with a soft voice.
"Spiders. Not coming toward us but heading out of the forest."
"Oh no… If there are spiders about then Kumo Konjou is starting to gather up your friends…" Keeping a hold on my arm she began to run. "We need to head to the temple!"
"Are Shikamaru and the others in danger?" I asked as I ran with her.
"I would not doubt it. Kumo Konjou plans to have all your friends in one place then have their clones kill them all at once." A grim expression appeared on her face making me worry even more.
Great. A slaughter is about to begin. Let's hope all of us can escape it.