A/N: I actually posted twice in one day again! Sadly, it's not two chapters of Just Wanna Make You Smile, but hey, I posted! Sorry for the horribly long wait. You don't know how much I've been beating myself up over this. I seriously need to pick up my updating speed. Well, once again, this chapter did not want to be written, but I dealt with it. Sorry, it's slightly shorter than I would have liked, and I only reached about half of what I wanted to cover, but I'm sure you can agree with the fact that I seriously needed to update. I'm not quite satisfied with it, but it's decent enough so, enjoy!

Disclaimer: Instrument Trio does not own Naruto, but does own some characters and elements of the plot

Ch. 26 A Predicament

Interestingly enough, in the morning, I either woke up around the same time as Shino, or he woke up late, and I honestly doubt he woke up late. As I was sitting up, he was putting on his glasses. I turned to let him dress in peace and noticed Akamaru had curled up on Hinata now that Kiba had left the tent. I smiled faintly as I quickly changed into my usual outfit.

"Good morning Shino" I greeted quietly as I finished. He nodded in response as I looked at him carefully, wondering why he hadn't moved from his sitting position.

"Um, are you okay?"

I fought the urge to sigh as he raised an eyebrow, asking for clarification.

"You look a bit pale…" I murmured, able to see mainly because he hadn't put on his jacket on yet. It's not often I can see his whole face, and I definitely wasn't complaining.

Ha! Enjoying the view?

…

Aw, she's speechless. How cute

Embarrased. Cute.

…

"Oh! Your injury! Um, are you okay? Did it re-open? Are you feeling light headed? Sluggish? Nauseous?"

"I'm okay"

I resisted the urge to twitch at the two word answer as I nodded in response and gestured toward the large injury on his side, "Okay. Can you lift your arm or do you need help rewrapping your injury?"

Shino handed me the roll of bandages and I grabbed a jar of Hinata's ointment before scooting forward and pausing awkwardly.

"Um…can you take off your shirt?"

Shino gave me a look that probably would have embarrassed me in any other situation, but it was early morning and I was still tired. I heard him sigh as he pulled the shirt off over his head with a little bit of difficulty.

"Sorry" I murmured as I unwrapped his old bandage, wincing at the redness of the gash. I frowned, before glancing up at Shino with an apologetic face, "This is going to sting…"

I winced when he flinched as I disinfected the gash before putting Hinata's ointment on it.

"It's too bad Hyuuga-sama won't let Hinata become a medic nin" I commented as I wrapped the bandage on Shino's injury.

"Hm?"

"The Hyuuga see becoming medics as beneath them. It's kind of sad considering their Byakugan, and I hate the fact that Hinata makes her ointments and stuff behind her father's back…"

"They don't want to be taken advantage of" Shino replied simply. I nodded as I finished up with the bandaging.

"That's what I thought, but Hinata's exact words wore 'beneath us', and I can bet anything they aren't her own words" I commented before leaning back on the balls of my feet and looking back at Shino, "Okay, done. Any other injuries you can't reach?"

I did a quick glance over noticing that he had wrapped up all the smaller cuts on his arms and legs, but missed a small cut on his cheek. That could probably be ignored.

"The opposite shoulder" Shino prompted, turning his head slightly to motion to his left shoulder. With a nod, I slipped behind him, only to pause in shock.

"Shoot! What happened?"

The area was red and looked painful. It was covered in scratches, almost as if someone with claws had slipped behind him and scratched him, but the scratches weren't in a long straight path. They were random and all over. To add to the injury, the area looked as if it was beginning to bruise. I traced a particularly long scratch from his shoulder blade to his spine, frowning as Shino stiffened up.

"Kiba's opponent flew into me after his Fang over Fang" Shino explained tersely as I cleaned the area up and placed a bandage over it.

"I'd love to give you an ice pack…" I sighed as I moved back to Shino's front, "But, I don't have one, and I don't think it would do much good right no-"

I paused as I noticed a long cut stretching from Shino's shoulder to jugular vein on the side of his neck. I felt cold as I slowly brought my hand up to touch the injury. The cut obviously wasn't deep, but it was too close to comfort. The image of Chimaru Sosuke throwing his sword at Kiba and Shino immediately came to mind and seemed to replay in slow motion as I once again was reminded of how close his sword came to hitting them.

"Ashi. Breathe. Calm down"

I snapped out of my thoughts, taking a deep breath as Shino clasped my hand with both of his and moved it away from his neck. He watched me carefully as I shivered before forcing the memory out of my head and grabbing the ointment again.

"What…gave you that cut?" I asked shakily, avoiding Shino's gaze as I cleaned the cut. I couldn't escape Chimaru Sosuke in my sleep, and he was still lurking around when I was awake as well.

"Most likely a kunai. I did not notice it until my watch last night"

I frowned faintly before scooting back to return Hinata's ointments. I paused as I glanced at Hinata, frowning as I examined her carefully. She looked a little pale…then again, I'm sure we all looked pale, most likely from blood loss, though I'm not sure if you could tell with me. My skin tone might make it a bit hard…

I snapped out of my thoughts as my stomach grumbled, and a faint smile slid onto my face as I turned toward the tent door.

"…breakfast sounds nice"

With breakfast came arguments, worry, and frustration. It was obvious we all just wanted to get home and were all riled up about the last battle. Kiba was in a bad mood because he always got the dawn shift, the last shift before the morning. This was mainly because of a night practice we had participated in a few months ago, but no matter how much Kurenai-sensei tried to explain, Kiba was upset.

Flashback

"Okay everyone, listen up"

We all turned toward Kurenai-sensei, paying strict attention, though I was partially distracted by the forest we were currently sitting on the outskirts of. The unspoken question was definitely 'what are we doing here?'

"Kurenai-sensei, what are we doing here? And at night?"

Okay, the no longer unspoken question. Leave it to Kiba to get right to the point.

"Patience Kiba" Kurenai-sensei replied with amusement obvious in her voice, "We're going to do some night training"

Kiba opened his mouth to speak, but Kurenai-sensei interrupted him with a pointed look.

"By night training, I'm going to observe your ability to fight and react in the dark. That is what you were going to ask, right Kiba?"

Kiba had the grace to look sheepish and I held back a snicker.

"Do other teams do night training as well, Kurenai-sensei?" I asked, curious. I hadn't heard from Naruto about night training, and Naruto liked to brag about everything.

"Not necessarily. However, our team works primarily in tracking, thus we need to make sure we can all perform well no matter what the circumstances" Kurenai-sensei replied. I nodded as she continued to explain what exactly we were to do.

"First off, we will do the easy task first. I want to observe how well you can maneuver through obstacles in the dark" Kurenai-sensei explained, "You will all go through the forest first without any aid from chakra and look for a tree with a marker on it. Once you find the tree, continue beyond, with help from chakra because there will be traps set up, until you reach the next training field."

Our eyes had adjusted to the darkness slightly, since we had been standing outside for quite some time while Kurenai-sensei explained everything. However, inside the forest was darker than outside and it took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust as I started proceeding slowly through the forest. I picked up speed eventually, though I had been paying attention to the sounds of owls, my teammates, and other creatures in the woods to help me figure out where exactly I was heading. Kurenai-sensei had given us an approximate location of where the tree would be, but it was up to us to find it. For the first task, I wasn't allowed to use Shinzo for help, which sucked, but oh well. There was a giant crash behind me as someone ran head first into a tree. I could tell immediately by the cursing and whimpering that it had been Kiba and Akamaru, and winced. I wasn't sure about his clan, but I knew some dogs didn't exactly have the best night vision; they relied more on their sense of smell. Up ahead, I noticed someone, most likely Shino, pass me on a tree branch as they continued ahead of me. With a sigh, I continued, wishing them luck.

Hinata and I reached the tree with the marker around the same time, though technically, I had paused for a break for a few seconds when Hinata arrived. All in all, I was quite used to moving through the dark due to my childhood and that village, but I hadn't done so in a while, so retraining my mind to go back to old techniques was mentally tiring. With an encouraging grin toward Hinata, who had just put on her Byakugan, I started focusing my chakra, aiming for the target up ahead. Gradually, the muted sounds of the forest became clearer: Sound Canyon Jutsu. After a last minute decision, I went back to an old technique, probably one of the first ones I learnt as a child as Hinata began to move. I grinned as I tracked her movements by her heat signature, she was a bright red to my eyes compared to the blues and greens that surrounded us. With one more last minute decision, I sent chakra to my legs, planning to sprint through this. Maybe I could overtake Shino. I had the feeling he had reached the marker before any of us. I could hear panting coming up behind me and knew Kiba and Akamaru were arriving. Time to move.

I laughed as I sprinted through the trees, leaping from branches and using my momentum to propel myself into the air as if I was jumping off of swings. I forgot how much fun my friends and I used to have playing around in the trees. It's odd, because I never really thought that village would help me so much later in life, but who knew. I was somewhere between Hinata and Shino, catching up on Shino. I could see his heat signature through the tree branches, and knew by the various tiny dots I saw around him, not to mention the faint buzzing noise, that he was using his kikai beetles to help him maneuver. The clearing was not far up ahead, and Shino was definitely going to arrive first, but I wouldn't be far behind. We had to do this training more often.

It was needless to say that Kiba's maneuvering abilities in the dark were…not that great. He made it, regardless, but he was covered in so many bruises and splinters that it looked like it hurt to walk. His sparring in the dark, however, was pretty good. Both his hearing and sense of smell did wonders where his eyes failed. It was just the dodging of stationary objects that threw him off. Shino was simply amazing. With and without his beetles, the dark didn't seem to bother him as much as it messed with us. Though, granted, he worked through heavily shaded sunglasses daily, so it didn't surprise me as much as it should have, but sunglasses at night? I would've thought he would have been blind. But no, he handed our butts to us, as usual, in both sparring and obstacle courses through the woods, as usual. Dear kami, he's literally good at everything. Hinata was pretty good with maneuvering through the course at night, but sparring was a bit more complicated for some reason. Perhaps it was because the Byakugan didn't see in color as she explained it, or because our speed didn't drop despite the darkness, but she seemed to be having a bit more trouble. I was normal-ish. For me, I suppose. Once I got back into the habit of traveling and fighting in the dark, I was good. I definitely need more practice though. As long as I'm using chakra, maneuvering isn't bad, but without chakra, it is definitely troublesome. Fighting is more interesting though. You hear, and sometimes smell more, and the experience of seeing a bright red arm punching toward your face is something I definitely need to get used to. Hinata shut down my whole arm with her first strike because I froze up. Obviously we need more work.

End Flashback

Kurenai-sensei promised to hold more night practices, but it didn't change the fact that she felt more comfortable with Kiba on the dawn shift instead of the night shift. Kiba's attitude cast a depressing mood on our group. Kurenai-sensei was aggravated, Kiba was sulking, and Shino was just exasperated. Personally, I was just emotionally tired, Akamaru was sleeping in Kiba's jacket, and Hinata looked both physically and mentally tired, as if she could just drop where she was standing and fall asleep. She had me worried, and I kept glancing back at her to make sure she was still going. She was really pale, the whole team was, but Hinata especially. To add to my worry, she didn't wake up until we were all done eating, which I let slide with benefit of the doubt, because we were all horribly tired and in pain, but she kept glancing at her arms and flexing her fingers which made me frown in suspicion.

"Hey, Hina-chan" I called out, smiling faintly as she glanced at me. I held up my water bottle with a nod, "Catch. You look tired"

I watched carefully as I tossed my water bottle to her. She fumbled it, almost dropping the bottle before giving me a grateful smile which wavered once she saw the discerning look on my face.

"A-Ashi?"

"Hinata, what's wrong with your hands" Shino asked firmly, noticing her flex her fingers as she gripped my water bottle nervously.

Kurenai-sensei and Kiba all stopped, turning to Hinata as she stammered out her answer.

"A-ano…they j-just feel a little weird…"

"Weird how, Hinata?" Kurenai-sensei asked as she approached Hinata and took her hands into her own.

"W-well, they felt like th-they were tingling earlier, b-but now they feel s-sort of numb"

Kurenai-sensei looked up sharply from where she was examining Hinata's hands, her lips set in a frown.

"How long have they been feeling odd?"

"Well, th-this morning I th-thought something felt weird, but they d-d-didn't start tingling until b-before we l-left.." Hinata murmured after thinking for a few seconds.

Kiba was staring at Hinata worriedly while Shino glanced at me before nudging me to catch my attention.

"You know something"

"Mm, it's a theory" I replied as Kurenai-sensei and Hinata turned toward us, "It might be…I think it's poison"

"As do I" Kurenai-sensei agreed with a worried frown still on her face, "Are you numb anywhere else?"

"W-w-well, my a-a-arms are st-starting to f-f-feel weird…" Hinata answered, shaking visibly. My frown deepened as I replayed the last 24 hours in my head, as the rest of the team did.

"It couldn't have been anything you ate" Kurenai-sensei stated after a while, "And am I correct in assuming no one else is feeling numb?"

Her stern gaze swept over all of us, and we nodded in agreement with her assumption.

"Do you remember what weapons you were injured by?"

"Oh crap! We didn't check for poisons, did we?" Kiba exclaimed, finally getting what we had all realized a few seconds prior.

"Focus. What weapons?" Kurenai-sensei snapped, and we all immediately began trying to recall exactly what weapons hit us.

"The barbed shuriken, Kiba's opponent's jacket, and a few kunai" Shino stated after a few minutes.

"The jacket, regular shuriken, and barbed shuriken" Kiba commented next a few seconds after Shino.

"I was hit with those stupid shuriken, a kunai and…a couple of senbon needles" I grumbled as I rubbed my arms, remembering the pain of the senbon needles and wincing as I brushed over the burn. Not smart.

"A-ano…senbon needles…and I was hit by many shuriken…n-normal ones"

"I received quite a few kunai and my opponent had a kodachi" Kurenai-sensei ended with a thoughtful frown, "So from what I gather, the kunai aren't the issue, and neither are the barbed shuriken, the kodachi, or the nin's jacket"

"That leaves the regular shuriken and the senbon" Shino commented in return.

"But, I was hit by the normal shuriken, and I'm fine" Kiba protested, "and Ashi got hit with the senbon and she's okay"

"Unless…."

They all turned to me as I mused out loud.

"You have an idea Ashimakase?" Kurenai-sensei asked as she motioned for me to continue. I shrugged as I continued speaking my thoughts out loud.

"Well…Chimaru Sosuke apparently knew of me and my friends, right?" I started awkwardly, "and I don't know if you noticed, but his forehead protector wasn't one of the most common ones"

"Huh? His forehead protector? What are you talking about?" Kiba asked, completely confused.

"You recognized it" Shino stated, ignoring Kiba's outburst.

"No, you know it personally" Kurenai-sensei corrected, as her ruby eyes narrowed.

I shifted uncomfortably before nodding and grimacing.

"What? What's going on here?" Kiba growled, his eyes darting from Kurenai-sensei to Shino to me.

"Continue Ashimakase" Kurenai-sensei prompted, once again ignoring Kiba's outburst. I glanced at Hinata, and then back at my hands before taking a deep breath.

"Well, if my theory is correct…I'm poisoned too"

And if it wasn't bad enough that I haven't updated in a while, I leave you with a cliffhanger. Sorry! On a happier note, it's one step closer to chuunin exams! And as for the vote from last chapter...

Shikaxoc - 2

Gaaraxoc - 1

Anyways, for last time's reviews!

Special Thanks To...

Vanadesse Merdiriel, Roamin-Tigeress, SomeOtherPerson, XiaBubbleQueen, Holy Star, Ace of Spades 216, RollInCream, and Kitko

for the reviews last chapter!

::Preview::

Oh great, Hinata and Ashi are poisoned. That's definitely not good news. What's worse, the team's dynamic is being tested with Ashi's secret. Well, first things first, they need to get home, and as soon as possible. Let's hope Hinata and Ashi can last that long!