I know this took me forever, I'm really sorry... I started school and there's just no time to do anything. I still hope you guys enjoy this!


Chapter 29: Not Even I Know

Travelling in silence, the group was on its highest guard. Kiba's sniffing, along with Akamaru's whining then broke the silence.

"What is it?"

Shikamaru asked him immediately, knowing that something was up.

"Blood… I smell blood real close from here."

Kiba growled.

"If you smell blood then it means there's some form of combat. If we go there, I bet we can gather some information, but we must approach carefully."

Shikamaru suggested.

"If we do that, Sasuke would cross the border before we get to him."

Neji commented.

"What are we going to do?"

Naruto asked Shikamaru. After thinking for a bit, Shikamaru gave out his orders.

"Alright, we'll go after Sasuke."

"Roger that! That's how it should be!"

Naruto replied. Riko still couldn't help but feel a bit worried about what Kiba had smelled. If there was blood and combat, then there were probably injured people too. She would've wanted to help out, but she understood that the priority at that moment was Sasuke. Shikamaru then warned everyone to watch out for possible traps laid out by the enemy.

Kiba started loudly sniffing again, putting everyone on alert.

"Hey! The stench of the enemy is all over this place!"

Kiba exclaimed.

"Everyone stop!"

Shikamaru quickly ordered. Everyone immediately stopped moving forward and Riko landed down next to Naruto. Neji then scanned the place with his byakugan and the group proceeded carefully while avoiding all the traps laid out by the enemy. For Riko it was a bit easier since she was floating above the floor traps and didn't need to come in contact with any surface to follow everyone.

"Caught them."

Neji said with his byakugan activated.

"Alright! Let's go bring Sasuke back!"

"Back off, Naruto. It's my time to show off this time."

Kiba chuckled with confidence.

"Mine too."

Choji retorted.

"Don't be hasty. As soon as I lay out my plan, we'll engage our target."

Riko took a deep breath to calm down her racing heart. Shikamaru then starts formulating a plan and giving out orders to everyone. After telling each person their role, he turned to Riko.

"Riko, you stay behind on standby. You have to stay hidden. We can't have them figure out that you're our medic, or they'll definitely go straight for you."

Riko slowly nodded, knowing that this was the best course of action. Everyone then assumed their role. Riko floated upwards in a place up in the trees where she was well hidden and could monitor everything from a safe distance.

Naruto makes some shadow clones and transforms them into Shikamaru and Neji. He then makes them approach the enemy on purpose to get noticed. This causes the sound ninja to attack them, only to fall into the real Shikamaru's shadow possession jutsu.

Just when they were about to celebrate, Shikamaru was then hit by a rock. Riko was the only one who noticed that something, or more like someone, moved from behind one of the sound ninja. That person seemed to be part of him.

The rock thrown at Shikamaru caused him to lose focus and his shadow possession came loose. Right when it did, the bulkier of the four sound ninja pressed his hands on the ground, bringing up a huge dome made out of the earth and rocks that enveloped all of Riko's teammates. The other sound ninja left, carrying a container that Neji mentioned to be containing Sasuke.

Riko knew that she couldn't just stay hidden while her friends were in danger. Now that there was only one of the sound ninja left, she felt as though she had a chance against him. She definitely knew that she had to face him and save her friends.

She went down from where she was, as silently as she could, concealing herself completely. She was right behind the bulky sound ninja who didn't seem to notice her at all. She knew that it was due to her powers kicking it. She took a deep breath and concentrated. She then grabbed the sound ninja's head.

"Ah!"

But he noticed her too late. His consciousness immediately faded and he fell limply to the ground along with his earth dome. When everyone emerged from inside, they looked confused and surprised. They then all noticed Riko and the motionless sound ninja.

"Riko-chan! Were you the one who saved us?"

Naruto exclaimed. Riko smiled and nodded.

"What? But how? How did you take him down so fast and all by yourself?"

Kiba asked, unable to comprehend the situation. Riko shrugged. Shikamaru then walked up to the sound ninja's body and placed checked his pulse.

"He's still alive. It looks like he's just in a coma. We should tie him up well and place some sort of barrier around him."

The guys all focused on that while Shikamaru went up to Riko.

"Care to tell me how you did that? I had no idea about what you were really capable of. This might open up a bunch of strategies that make use of your abilities."

Riko looked perplexed. She took out her notebook and wrote down what she wanted to say to Shikamaru.

Not even I know what I'm capable of. Things just happen when i really need them to happen.

Shikamaru scratched the back of his head.

"Hm… That's definitely odd. But thanks for what you did. We owe you one."

Riko shook her head and smiled. She felt so happy to be useful to them.

When they were done tying the sound ninja up, they continued their pursuit of the other sound ninja.

Shikamaru transformed himself into the bulky sound ninja to catch the enemy off guard while the others followed and stayed hidden behind.

When the transformed Shikamaru caught up, the other sound ninja didn't seem to notice it wasn't their teammate.

"What took you so long?"

The sound ninja who Riko had seen another human being come out of said to the transformed Shikamaru. The latter proceeded to reply.

"Sorry, it took some time to take those bastards' chakra away."

Shikamaru replied, trying to sound as natural as possible.

"You fatty! Don't be so slow! Hurry up and carry that coffin, since it's your job, you inferior dickhead!"

The only kunoichi of the group aggressively said.

"Yeah…"

Shikamaru replied, not knowing how the shinobi he was transformed as would react to such insults. There was then a moment of silence as the other sound shinobi looked at the transformed Shikamaru with suspicious eyes.

"Hey, Jirobo… You're so obedient today."

The shinobi with six arms said.

"What…?"

Shikamaru started to understand that he'd been found out.

"I said that I can't let you carry the coffin since you're not Jirobo!"

Shikamaru frowned.

"Damn."

He then charged at the shinobi with multiple arms.

"Kidomaru!"

The kunoichi called out to him.

"Let me handle it! Tayuya, Sakon, you guys go on ahead!"

Kidomaru then threw the coffin containing Sasuke to Tayuya. Sakon and her then went on ahead as Kidomaru trapped Shikamaru and all the others who had emerged to attack him in a spider web that he produced from his mouth.

Riko stayed behind, just like Shikamaru instructed her again. However, with the web covering so much surface, she didn't know how she would be able to get to him without getting caught in his web.


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