/AN\

Hey!

Sorry for the delay in posting this new chapter, but as I mentioned in the last chapter I was busy getting a beta! So thank you, Kaname84 for your help! Honestly would've taken me forever to get it done on my own (and it would never be as good as it became with her help). We have edited up to Chapter 6 by now, so this one isn't edited, but I just wanted to post something to update you all on the status as well as continuing with the story.

Since I've received this question a couple of times, I'll clear up the ages of the characters. In canon (at the start of Naruto) Genma was 29-30, but I've made him younger by about 4 years, making him 25-26 when that part of the storyline starts.

This means, at the time of Shizuka's promotion to Chūnin:

Genma, Kakashi etc - 19-20

Kaito, Masaru, Hana etc - 14

Itachi - 13

Shizuka - 12

Naruto, Sasuke etc - 7

Hope that clears it up!

Thanks! And Enjoy!

xx

SC

"Speaking."

'Thinking'

Jutsus

Chapter 21 - On the Run

As much as Shizuka enjoyed working for the Intel division, going out on missions with a team gave her a whole different kind of satisfaction. Team four missions especially, where they had connections to make, information to collect and the occasional fight. Although those were not usually expected, it had happened before and she was sure it would happen again.

It was supposed to be a simple C-Rank mission but things simply weren't going their way.

The mission was to the Southwest to the border with the Land of Rivers and find out who was dealing drugs in that area. It wasn't anything they hadn't done before and there had been no indications that this would turn out to be any harder than the given C-Rank.

So when they got there and sensed high ranking shinobi just beyond the border they assumed it was their border patrol.

They proceed as if it were any other mission and they settle into the hotel, Shizuka sets up her map while her team goes out to the town to explore for a bit. By the time they get back, Shizuka is annoyed that she couldn't find anything in the files they were given that was directly related to drugs but does point out some odd events that had happened in the area.

They continued investigating for a few days. They found evidence of other criminal groups passing through the town, whispers of missing-nin and some corrupt politicians, but nothing on the drug cartel they were looking for.

"What if we search nearby areas? If there has been so much activity from them here than they probably have a base in the area." Shizuka suggested on the sixth night at the hotel.

"Honestly, Sensei, we've entered every shop, walked every street we'll need to spread out a bit." Kaito agreed from where he was lying down, his eyes following their Jōnin-sensei who was reading over notes on the mind map.

"Alright, Shizuka see if you can get anything now." Kouta sighed and sat down by the table, while his student closed her eyes to focus.

A few minutes passed and Shizuka could feel the sweat gathering on her forehead as she stretched her senses to the limit as she tried to catch the presence of anything in the area surrounding the town.

"Those border people are still there and there is a cluster of people outside town." Shizuka snapped her eyes opened and jumped to her feet. Moving to the map at the centre of her map, she drew Xs on the locations. "Just three miles Southwest of here, and the border, well there is a rather large number of highly ranked shinobi there."

"Odd. We'll have to steer clear from them. We'll investigate the location tomorrow." Kouta sighed as he stood and stretched out. "We should call it a night. We'll work out logistics for this in the morning."

"Sensei, what would happen if we exhaust all our options here?" Masaru questioned as he too stood up to return to his room.

"Mission is declared incomplete, they will have a look at it at Intel and will either be passed back to us or given to a new set of eyes. It's not a fail if we have something to show for it but not successful unless all mission objectives are completed."

"Well let's hope we actually get proper information tomorrow. An incomplete mission isn't good enough." Masaru yawned halfway through his second sentence which took away from his determined tone.

"Goodnight then. See you all tomorrow." Shizuka waved as the three male left her room. 'Not sleepy yet, so I might as well read over all this again.'

With a sigh, she made her way to the centre of the mind-map with a notebook and pen in hand.

The next morning team four made their way towards the cluster of people. With some quick signals passed between them, they confirmed the base was manned by civilians and thus posed no threat.

"Masaru, put up a genjutsu to make them sleep. Kaito we will be looking for information. Shizuka, keep an eye out. Radio channel 4." Kouta distributed the radios and waited for Masaru to give the go ahead.

Shizuka felt the layered genjutsu hit the base, the people started swaying on their feet before collapsing into heaps on the floor. She spread her senses inside to ensure they were all down, and as soon as she confirmed it her teammates immediately jumped down and went inside.

She spread her senses again, this time towards the border where the probably-not-border-patrol shinobi were. They hadn't moved from their area so she continued checking the area around the base.

"Shizuka, we found scrolls of information on the hidden villages." Kouta's voice cracked through the radio.

"It's from the same group as last time, Shizuka." Kaito spoke quickly, "The ones at the border, do you think they are the same as the ones we ran from?"

"I can't really tell if they are the same, and I'd honestly rather not find out." Shizuka answered, "I don't remember reading that the group had a base in this area, but we could have missed something at Intel."

"We did find the drugs though, so we're sealing them away and cleaning the hideout. The civilians still under the genjutsu?" Masaru spoke up. In the background, Shizuka could hear scrolls being moved and sealed.

"Yeah, they are all out. Not many people at the border now, I think some have moved towards town though, which means we need to be discreet when we get there and preferably head back soon."

"Copy. We're nearly done here. Anything else?" Kouta asked between sealing the information away in a storage scroll.

"Let me check the perimeter." Shizuka sighed and spread her senses out again, her mind half focused on the shinobi that had moved into the town while simultaneously checking the other directions.

Ignoring the headache slowly building up behind her temples, she gasped as she felt the unmistakable feeling of another sensor brushing against her own senses. Instinctively pulling her chakra as close to her core as she could her mind shut down from the sheer power that had pushed against her senses.

"Shizuka! Answer me? What happened?" Kouta's voice sounded firm through the radio.

"Sorry, Sensei, there is a sensor approaching. And a very strong one at that." Shizuka stood turned in the general direction she expected them to come from, "Not the border people, it's coming from the East, and I don't think they are alone."

"Think we can avoid them?" Shizuka barely jumped when her Sensei landed on the branch beside her. "Come on, Shizuka, focus."

"They were focused on this direction, hence how our senses collided. Definitely found me, might be able to track me if he got a good sense memory."

"What about the border group?"

"If we go back to town now then we'll get stuck between two groups, heavily outnumbered."

"Then we deal with whoever is coming quickly and head back to Konoha. I'll send a summon to get our things." Already flying through handsigns, Kouta summoned a group of four squirrels. "Arata, I need you to get our things from the hotel, don't forget the mind-map."

"Hai, Kouta-kun." Arata and the other three launched into the air in the direction of town.

"Shizuka, find the targets." Kouta turned to his youngest student who nodded and closed her eyes and breathing deeply.

"Definitely locked onto us. Four of them, ranging from Chūnin to Jōnin." Shizuka opened her eyes and nodded in the direction they were coming from. "They've slowed down, probably realised I wasn't alone."

"Take positions. One for each, Shizuka keep an eye on anyone else approaching."

The team prepared for the confrontation with reasonable calm. Masaru jumped to the ground, Shizuka and Kaito jumped to trees beside the one Kouta stood on. They waited in silence, not necessarily hiding as their enemy had already found them, but making sure they had some form of cover for whatever was to come.

Their enemy attacked first, launching projectiles at Kaito and Shizuka forcing them away from their sensei and right into the paths of two opponents. Shizuka drew a tantō to parry a dark blue haired man's katana.

A quick check of her surroundings gave her a glimpse at her teammates' pairings. Masaru was on the ground fighting a scrawny blond man, while Kaito was being tag teamed by a black-haired woman wielding twin blades and a blond woman.

Shizuka huffed in annoyance as she had to retreat to dodge the incoming weapons while trying to corner the scrawny man with her shadows. Seems like all the practice she had done with her parents at controlling her shadows while dodging projectiles was coming in handy. However, the crackling of sparks made her mentally groan before she glanced up to confirm her suspicions.

"Shit. Masaru, wall now. Make it big." Shizuka jumped back to land by Masaru's side as he flew through handsigns. "Three… two… one…"

The explosion shook the earth, and thankfully her other two teammates took her warning seriously as they also jumped for the cover of Masaru's wall.

Shizuka sighed and gestured to the ground with an expectant look towards Kouta who nodded and flashed through handsigns before unearthing one of their enemies, quickly slitting his throat.

The team didn't have time to rest as the other three launched a new attack, a new urgency to their moves as they were now a man down.

Kaito engaged the woman with the twin blades and Kouta went for the blue-haired man who they assumed was the leader. This left the sensor, the blond woman, to Shizuka and Masaru to deal with.

They took turns in engaging the woman in close range combat, Shizuka with her tantōs and Masaru with normal taijutsu while the other would cover with long-range attacks.

Shizuka was vaguely aware of her other teammates and their battles, but she only checked in periodically so that her focus was centred on her own fight. The sensor was keeping up with her speed but clearly had the advantage of strength over her. As she was continuously pushed back she signalled for Masaru to take over. Locking her left tantō with a kunai she spun around, slashing at the blond's ribs, managing draw blood and an angry curse.

Unfortunately, this left her own side open and with a surprising burst of speed, the sensor landed a strong kick to her ribs sending her flying into a tree.

With the breath knocked out of her, she took a moment to regain her bearings. Luckily for her, Masaru was quick to cover for her and she took a moment to glance around inspecting the clearing.

Kouta had by that point defeated his opponent and was helping Kaito defeat his opponent. Even so, Shizuka caught his glance in her direction as he had probably heard her crash into the tree.

With a nod in his direction, Shizuka stood and weaved through handsigns using the shadow the tree provided to extend her own and send it behind the woman. Masaru noticed the creeping shadow and kept the woman's attention away from it and with the help of a projectile from Shizuka, they trapped the woman and finished the battle by slitting her throat.

Releasing her jutsu, Shizuka slumped against the tree and Masaru took a moment to lean against it as well. Their attention turned towards their teammates just in time to see Kouta pierce the woman's back with his blade while Kaito held off both her blades with his katana and a kunai.

As the woman fell to the ground Kaito moved towards his observing teammates, while Kouta checked the fallen shinobi.

"How are you all doing?" Kouta asked as he approached Masaru and Shizuka once he was done searching the bodies for any information.

"Shizuka has cracked ribs, Masaru and I have some bruises but he's used up a lot more chakra than I have." Kaito listed off as he helped Shizuka up from where she sat.

"Let's head, back. My summons will find us later." Kouta sighed and waited for them to adjust themselves and was about to move out when the youngest team member spoke up.

"Uh, Sensei… That might not be possible. The shinobi that moved from the border to town are heading this way." Shizuka winced both from her ribs and unimpressed looks she received. "Four more heading this way, high ranked probably."

"Can we outrun them?" Masaru glanced between his female teammate and their sensei.

"Not in this condition, but we won't have to. I think there is a rogue nin base in the area. We can guide them there and escape in the confusion."

"Too risky, we might get caught in the crossfire." Kouta shook his head, as he thought over their options.

"Sensei, these shinobi are above our level, we could maybe take them if they were two or three if we got lucky…" Shizuka trailed off, "If we set up a trap to take one or even two of them down we can try to fight the rest."

"Masaru, throw up a genjutsu, Shizuka, track their signatures and prepare for another fight. Kaito you're with me." Kouta launched into the trees while Shizuka and Masaru stood together with their backs to a group of boulders.

Once the genjutsu was up Masaru leaned back against the boulder before turning to observe Shizuka.

"No idea what they did, but they caught one of the enemies by surprise. Get ready, they are nearly here." Shizuka whispered to Masaru before she stepped back into the shadows.

Knowing his teammate was hoping for a surprise attack with her shadows, he straightened up just as his other two teammates burst into sight, with three shinobi appearing right after of them commented on Shizuka's absence, instead they got ready for their new opponents to make a move.

From her position, Shizuka observed each enemy and considered who she would ambush first. Unsurprisingly their sensei was the best off out of the three and so she turned towards the younger two. Kaito seemed to be on top of his game that day and was holding up rather well, and while Masaru didn't seem to struggle too much she could sense his diminishing chakra stores.

Waiting for the moment Masaru's opponent stepped within her range she immediately caught him with the shadow stitching technique. Masaru didn't even stop to wonder and had already moved to tag team Kaito's opponent who seemed to finally realise Shizuka had been hiding.

"In the trees, shadow user. Watch out."

Kouta sighed as his opponent immediately shifted so that he was away from the treeline. Shizuka jumped into the fight, helping Masaru and Kaito with their opponent who was proving to be rather proficient at dodging.

The fight continued for a little while longer until a thought came to Shizuka. With a quick signal to her teammates, they covered for her retreating form while she spread her senses out. With a gasp and a quick burst of chakra, she pushed her shadows around forcing the enemy to back away from the loose tendrils and into the trees.

"They have backup, they are still a few ways off though. I didn't gather specifics."

As soon as she finished conveying her message the remaining two opponents launched a coordinated attack, focused on the Nara, only to be blocked by Kaito and Kouta.

"Where are all these people coming from?" Masaru groaned as he tried to attack Kaito's opponent only to get punched in the gut before he managed to jump back to avoid a kick to the head.

"We aren't exactly being discrete… And they knew they had teammates in this general area." Shizuka sighed as she launched two tendrils at Kouta's opponent only for the man to cut through both tendrils with a wind enhanced blade.

Deciding her shadows weren't any use, she drew both tantōs and with coordinated attacks with Kouta, they managed to visibly slow their opponent's attacks and weaken his defence.

The next few minutes were a blur as they attacked the last two opponents with a new sense of urgency. And for the second time that day, Shizuka left her side open, which her new opponent also took advantage of before Kouta could make a move to cover her exposed side.

With a twist and a grunt of pain, Shizuka dodged the blade to the side but was stabbed in the thigh instead. Slapping her opponent's arm with a lightning jutsu, paralysing his arm she jumped away, landing unsteadily on her feet as Kouta stabbed their opponent in the back with his katana.

Kaito and Masaru's opponent realised immediately he was the last one of his little group and landed a swift blow to Masaru's head, sending the boy tumbling on the ground. He had no time to consider anything else before Kaito landed the killing blow.

"We need to move now." Kouta moved from where he retrieved the pouches they fallen enemy shinobi had towards Masaru, who was conscious but very obviously dazed from the heavy blow. "Kaito carry Shizuka, I've got Masaru."

They launched into the trees and started a fast pace towards Konoha. For several minutes they didn't speak, as they focused solely on putting some distance between them and their pursuers.

After a while, Masaru seemed more alert, but Kouta kept carrying him for the sake of keeping up the speed.

"Shizuka, status on pursuers." Kouta requested, his eyes still trained on the path ahead.

"There are three of them. We've gained some ground, but they are still following." Shizuka momentarily tightened her arms around Kaito's neck as she focused on spreading her senses. "We need something to throw them off, we can't continue on at this pace."

"What about the genjutsu and jamming combo from our mission with Emi and Shun?" Kaito suggested this drew a contemplative and a questioning hum from Shizuka and their sensei respectively.

"We don't have a jamming technique to use instead of Shun's but a strong enough genjutsu and some focus, it might just work… Sensei, what do you think?" Shizuka opened her eyes and glanced sideways at the Jōnin who had dropped back to run alongside Kaito.

"It's our best bet. Masaru, can you manage a strong layered genjutsu?"

"Hai. But you might need to supplement a bit as I'm low on chakra." Masaru lifted his head to glance at Shizuka, "Same as always?"

Shizuka and Masaru started talking through their actions, as Shizuka managed the diversion and Masaru layered the genjutsu with Kouta adding on some layers of his own to strengthen the facade. Once that was complete, they accelerated their pace again and Shizuka took to updating them every so often on their enemies' progress.

"They are slowing down and diverging from our path too." Shizuka slumped into Kaito's shoulder, "We should keep an accelerated pace for a while longer just in case, but we'll be able to slow down soon."

Kouta nodded his agreement and the team proceeded in silence. After another mile running, Shizuka confirmed their positions and the team finally slowed down.

"Shizuka, you'll have first shift so that you can keep a wide perimeter, Kaito and I will take the middle shifts and Masaru will have the last." Kouta gave their orders as soon as they had settled. "Keep an eye out for Arata and the other squirrels, they should catch up with us sometime this night."

With murmured agreements, the team proceeded to munch on the emergency ration bar they kept in their pouches and settled in for the long night ahead.

/AN\

To answer the guest review:

Candice:

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I also enjoy writing about the team dynamics, and I can promise more glimpses into that.

I hope I managed to clear up the age situation in the AN. While it might be a challenge the change in their relationship will be fun to write and I'm looking forward to that.

He for sure needs more love XD Hope you've enjoyed the chapter!