Hello! (hides behind Naruto, Shikamaru and Shino) Look! I brought them all back! Sorry for the long wait. College life got the better of me, but now I am finished for the semester, and I have been diving back into writing! Here is an update for you all! I hope to be updating again in a week or so, but I can't make any promises! Thanks for your patience. Enjoy! (Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or profit from this story.)
Last time... "This is a bit of a mess." Shikamaru muttered. Naruto nodded.
"I know. We made a mistake with this." He rubbed at his head to ease the slow throb. "I just want this done right now. I think we need to get back out of the village." Shikamaru closed his eyes, rapidly running through the possibilities.
"That… could be a good option. I don't want to try this in the streets. We also need to be able to think and re-calculate for a while. That part could go to plan, but I think the rest may change." Naruto nodded.
"'Kay. I'll get Shino, you head to the meeting place. We'll be there in…" He paused to check distances. His senses were getting tenuous after the hours of use and stress. "... twenty minutes tops." The Nara reached out and grabbed his shoulder.
"Be careful." Naruto smiled wanly.
"Yeah, you too." He slipped to the mouth of the alley. "See you in a bit."
Finding the Aburame was easy with his senses. He'd have a massive headache for hours after this much time using them, but he wasn't sure he cared at this point. Shino was walking slowly through the isles of a bookstore. Naruto was able to open the door loudly, and march over close to the other genin without raising to much attention. Shino of course looked up at the noise and the familier chakra his kikaichu sensed.
"Shh!" He hissed, keeping in character. Naruto, in the guise of a younger boy as he was, acted it up. He started babbling quickly, tossing in specific words to signal his teammate.
"Ah, sorry, but I wanted to look for a book. Or I mean… a comic, and it's supposed to be out. And I wanted to bring it to my sleepover tonight, but Mom is out running errands and I only have a few minutes to look for it and…" Shino, having gotten the message held up a hand.
"Alright. Whatever." He walked away and left the store. Naruto huffed and bounced around the store for less than five minutes before the shopkeeper shooed him out. Shino had waited for him and followed subtly behind the other boy as he made his way quickly through the streets. They twisted and doubled back a few times, and took parallel streets several times as well. Shino could read tension in the form of the other boy. He would have to wait and see what he and Shikamaru had found before forming a conclusion. Why? Because he had no other way to gauge the situation logically.
They slowed and carefully approached an old house on the outskirts of a neighborhood close to the training grounds. It was a rental house, but currently empty. Naruto paused only briefly to check the area before creeping behind a pair of shrubs that hid the old storm cellar door. It didn't make a sound when opened, no doubt Shikamaru had oiled the hinges before entering. They climbed down a ladder into the musty cellar. There was only one other door, which lead to a small storage area. Shikamaru was perched on a barrel with a small flame lantern in his hand. He had changed out of his disguise, and back into his normal clothes. Shino noted how tense the Nara was. This isn't looking good. He thought. Naruto sighed.
"I'm going to change." He walked over to a corner of the small room before unsealing his clothes and switching the outfit. Shino did the same once the blond was finished. There was no other exchange. It was the Aburame who had to lead into the talk.
"I would like to hear what you two have learned." Naruto sighed, and ran a hand through his hair.
"I think we made a huge mistake." Shikamaru seemed to both tense further, and relax slightly. Shino didn't know what to make of it. Naruto was paling slightly, and he seemed even more on edge than he had when they had discussed the Kyuubi. "I- ANBU headquarter was pretty much useless, and I- They had a guest." Shino and Shikamaru paled as well when the heard this. Ibiki had talked about T&I, and what purposes if served. He had always referred to the prisoners they questioned as guests. For Naruto to have mentioned this, he had to have seen or heard something that he wasn't prepared for. Naruto was swallowing hard and pacing still.
"I got in and out unnoticed, but I didn't really get anything useful, and now, I have been thinking about this," He waved a hand at them "and I just don't think this is really going to work." Shikamaru nodded.
"I had the same thought. We didn't really think about how this would pan out. I thought of all kinds of angles, different steps, and all that. But I didn't factor in our limited skills." Shino sat down on the edge of a bench. He could tell both boys were disturbed.
"You do not believe that we are capable." Shikamaru looked up.
"Not enough, anyway. Ibiki-sensei is a jonin. I was looking at records, and there is no way we match even a fraction of his experience. We aren't ready. I didn't find much that was useful, and I didn't think about his reaction. I don't know if either of you saw him, but he's mad, more so than I have ever seen him before." Naruto sighed again.
"Yeah, I bet. I'm sorry for suggesting this." Shino shook his head.
"You may have suggested it, but Shikamaru and I thought through it with you and agreed to try it. I think we are all equally to blame. Logically, in hindsight, this was foolish. I admit I did think we could handle it before though. The question now is what we should do." A moment of quiet settled on them.
"I think our best bet is to go back to the training ground and set more traps. Just go for it like we planned that all along." Shikamaru reluctantly admitted. Shino stood back up then.
"We should wait a few more minutes. You both need some time to calm down. I can keep a lookout." Naruto flopped on the ground, disregarding the dust and dirt. Shikamaru leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Shino sent out a few of his kikaichu just to fly around. The low rustle and buzz was soothing, familiar to all of them after weeks of practice together.
The training ground was thankfully empty when they got there. Most of the traps they had set were down, but Naruto, with the aid of a few clones, was able to start on resetting many of the while the other two worked on other snares and traps. The damage some of the traps had caused likely added to Ibiki's bad mood. As they worked, Shino used his bugs to set false chakra clusters again, using small amounts of chakra from his two teammates. They wanted to get this done as soon as possible. Shikamaru was talking quietly to himself as he attached ninja wire to a set on senbon, running through possible outcomes and responses to them. They moved as quickly as possible, not knowing when Ibiki could return. Their plan had changed significantly, and they'd have to recalculate their coordination.
Back in the market, Ibiki had felt a tingle of the chakra he was after. The trail was fresh, and far more clear than it had been in almost two hours. It started in an area of the market, and lead back towards a housing area near the training grounds. Feeling vindictively triumphant, Ibiki followed it to the edge of the road, before he veered off towards the wooded training ground. He suspected that if the three genin had come this close to it, they would likely have returned to set more traps. He kept his senses tuned, and went at a fast pace towards the area. A few feet into the trees, he set off a trap.
Wires whipped around and snapped quickly as the trigger was released. The razor wire nicked the trees around the jonin as he sped past it. A slow hiss sounded as smoke filled the forest floor. Ibiki didn't trust it, what with the way Naruto could pull all kinds of ideas out. He was forced down into it shortly there after. A hail of kunai from one direction, bolstered with senbon from another pushed his path downwards. The jonin could have dodged most of them, but he was intent on getting this done as soon as possible. He would be having words with his students, and possibly the Hokage when this was through.
There were hints of chakra around, but nothing as bright as his genin would be. He set off in a wide circle, trying to hem in the genin. He encountered more traps along the way, ranging from snares and caltrops to smoke bombs and wired kunai set to fling in multiple directions. There was even a trap that cast a cloud of glitter into the air. Ibiki still had some of it stuck to him. He supposed it was nice to see a hint of Naruto's more mischievous side. He might have applauded the boy for it if he weren't so pissed at the three of them. He'd been moving around the training ground for less than a minute, already halfway around it, and there were still no real signs of the gening. He knew they were nearby. The chakra trail was too fresh for them to have moved to far away, and most of the traps were new. More time spent looking for them meant more ideas to punish them.
The first trap that truly surprised him, and caused a fair bit of damage was attached to a tree branch. He almost didn't see the slip of white paper until he had put his foot on it. Expecting another smoke bomb, he was thrown when the paper lit up with glowing red symbols and a shockwave erupted less than a second later. Ibiki was thrown sideways and he lost his balance as a series of smaller shockwaves cascaded around him. Flipping around as he fell to try and remain upright, Ibiki noted the dozens of glowing red symbols around him. What the hell!? Are those seals? I've never seen anything like this before. It was more than thirty seconds later when the shocks abated and he landed on the forest floor. He rolled to the side quickly, seeing another slip of paper. The jonin stood- but it was too late. A blast of light, raw chakra, and smoke covered the hail of wicked thorns that were cast everywhere by the explosion. Ibiki had shielded his face, but his arm and the back of his neck sported a few cuts and bits of thorn embedded in the skin.
A low buzz signaled Shino's entrance. A could of kikai descended on him, with their host following shortly behind. The genin went straight at his teacher, kunai raised. Ibiki growled and flipped a shuriken at him. The boy dodged it, changing direction mid air with some difficulty. Landing on a branch, the boy directed his bugs to attack the jonin. Ibiki, though his patients was at an end, knew better than to kill the insects. He could have used a fire technique, but that would have incited the anger of his student, likey the two other genin, and the Aburame clan head. Instead he started subtly casting a genjutsu. It wasn't a strong one. It would slightly alter the boys depth perception. Ibiki had trained with the three of them using similar genjutsu, but not this particular one. As he hoped, it was enough to make the boy stumble. Ibiki took the opportunity to dart forward and drive a senbon into a nerve cluster in his neck. Shino twitched, and then collapsed. The kikaichu returned to hover over their host. Ibiki leapt to the trees and then started on his circuit again, keeping an eye out for paper tags.
He came across several more traps, some of which were quite well done. Close to a more open spot, he encountered the other two genin. Naruto attacked this time, barreling out of the trees with several shadow clones at his back. A hail of kunai from the left gave away Shikamaru's position. Naruto kept up a barrage of taijutsu, using the clones heavily. He kicked at the jonin, though the blow was only glancing. Ibiki gave him a few moments to attack, after all this was a training exercise. Shikamaru kept up a random pattern of attack from a distance. Ibiki had no trouble dodging. Naruto pulled back for a moment, sending clones instead. Ibiki easily dispelled them. Then Shikamaru burst out of the bushes to join Naruto. THe pair used Naruto's faster speed with Shikamaru's more technical skills well. It wasn't enough. The jonin had had enough. He swept Naruto away from the Nara and flipped him into a tree. The blond hit his back against the tree hard, knocking the breath out of him for a moment. That moment was enough for Ibiki to catch and bind Shikamaru in ninja wire and administer a quick nerve pinch. THe boy slumped into unconsciousness easily. Naruto had stood back up and was braced for an attack by the time he turned back to the boy. That was good at least. Ibiki grinned before charging at him. Naruto blocked the first two hits, but the third connected. He went down silently. Ibiki huffed, still irritated.
The whole affair had taken less than ten minutes. Why on earth the genin took off, evaded him for four hours, and then hardly put up a fight was beyond him. He'd have to pay far more attention to them. Something was off. Sealing tag, the like of which he had never seen before, laid out in a highly effective formation, was not something genin should be capable of. And they way they had slipped out form the training grounds, and then kept away from him for hours was incongruent with this attack. It wasn't well planned, and it had not accomplished much. He hauled the two unconscious genin up and started moving through the woods to their clearing. Shino was close to there as well, and it took him only a few minutes to fetch the third boy. He sat down and went through the whole day again, noting details and putting observations in place.
A few minutes later, the three genin stirred. Naruto woke first, unsurprising, with his extra cargo. He blanched and kept silent when he saw his jonin sitting above him. Ibiki noted that, and sent him a short glare. The boy looked down, guilty. Shino and Shikamaru followed shortly after. Ibiki let them stew for a moment. Naruto and Shikamaru looked the most worried. Shino was uncomfortable, but not as antsy.
"Well, my young menaces, we will be having a long discussion."
(Mwahaha! Cliffhanger!)