Shikamaru was scanning over the hand-drawn map of the Forest of Death his clan had stored away in the murkiest edges of their clan's library. Chouji was beside him, repeating the bits of information Hana had given them about the supposed treasure that had once belonged to Hashirama Senju. Sakura was currently stirring their soups, helping all four bowls cool off so they could eat without burning their tongues.

Their day had not been wasted, in her point of view, because they had managed to point out the wrong spots to look for the treasure. And she and Akamaru had come across a lovely patch of flowers that weren't poisonous, near a small creak, that would undoubtedly work for a perfect meditation spot if Kiba allowed them to go back.

"Well, if the information is even marginally based on reality," Shikamaru sighed as he leaned back and placed his hands on his knees, all the while he closed his eyes, "we've got at last ten kilometers of viable land to look into."

Quite frankly, hearing this was a bit of a blow to Sakura's optimism. Even though she wholeheartedly believed that they were going to find something amazing that had once belonged to Hashirama Senju within this forest, it was hard to believe they would truly find something now that they knew just how extensively they would have to search.

Besides, what if Shikamaru was right? What if Hana had just come up with this rumor to keep Kiba busy while their mother was off on a mission? What if, even if they found a treasure, it was a thousand times smaller than what they had ben led to believe? What if what they found was some cheap gag left by some mean spirited jerk to make fun of the people that were gullible enough to believe the tall tale about Hashirama Senju's mythical treasure being buried in this area?

Akamaru barked with determination painting the sound, all the while walking up to Sakura to sit down beside her. Once he was right beside her thigh, he raised a paw and placed it on top of it, wordlessly attempting to comfort her. The pink haired girl smiled at the animal, nodding at him.

"Akamaru's right- we're not going to give up until we've scoured every inch of that area!"

Shikamaru sighed heavily, even though Chouji smiled, seemingly reassured with her own passion.

"I can't understand why you guys are to insistent on finding something that may not even be real." he groaned as he crossed his arms over his chest, then cracked one eye open to look at Sakura. From this gaze, Sakura could see exactly how little the Nara believed in their venture. "Searching for this probably nonexistent treasure is going to be so troublesome."

The pink haired girl wasn't able to stop herself from pursing her lips at his words. She was more than aware that Shikamaru was kind of a downer, but she had thought that he would at least be excited to help them find out if Hashirama Senju had truly left a large treasure within the Forest of Death! Didn't he have enough passion in his body to find something interesting?

Chouji sighed softly, then changed the topic of the conversation. He asked Shikamaru about his clan's library and all the sort of information that was within there.

Sakura sat back and allowed them to continue talking without her. In a way, she was happy that Chouji was taking initiative all on himself to get more information out of Shikamaru, seeing how he was the one with access to an almost limitless library. Unlike the rest of them, the Nara's family had an almost innumerable amount of information readily at their disposal, even though he didn't use it. And that information was more than just valuable to them- it could tell them more about Kuzu!

Unfortunately, their access to the Nara library was limited to whenever Shikamaru felt like visiting. This meant that, even though Sakura would have loved to be there every day to finally break Kuzu's mystery wide open, she wasn't able to do such a thing. Her investigating was regimented to only a couple of hours within a day; and if she was lucky, she would be able to spend two days of the week working in the library. But there wasn't much she could do to convince Shikamaru to allow her to visit as often as she wanted to so she had to be complacent with what she was offered.

Hmm... Kiba had been gone for a while, even though Chouji had called out for him to come over so they could eat their dinner.

Just as Sakura was about to tell the three males with her that she was going to find Kiba, a shadow piqued her attention. It appeared by the window to her right, and was only a flash that she barely picked up on from the edge of her vision.

Of course, her attention was immediately captured by this. She may have been young and a civilian, but she knew very well that their current surroundings were not the safest. If she believed she had seen something out there, then she should have at least investigated-

Before she had even been able to finish this line of thought, a dark tendril shot its way straight through the window opening and made its way directly towards Shikamaru. And in less than a second- before one could even blink- the tendril had wrapped around Shikamaru's mouth and nose, completely managing to suffocate him.

Sakura's eyes widened.

Chouji threw his body back in surprise.

Before either of the could even properly react, Shikamaru's eyes had rolled to the back of his head and his body had sagged- unconscious.

Her heart began to beat so quickly that, for a moment, all she could properly hear was just her thumping fear. But eventually she was able to hear more- and that was when she heard his voice.


"Pitiful. Have I not been training you in any way? You did not even react before I knocked your friend out."

Kakuzu had expected more from the children he had been training for years. But, again, he should not have been all that taken aback by finding out that all of his hard work had been squandered and stunted by the education Konohagakure offered.

He would have to work harder to beat intelligence into these children, then. If Konoha's lessons left them this numb to dangerous situations, these kids would be sitting targets in a regular battlefield. And he wasn't in business of helping weaklings that would eventually die an avoidable death. These children were now his students- and he would not see them hindered by idiotic, subpar ninja.

Now that the Nara child had been taken out of the equation by a special concoction Sasori had been kind enough (ordered by their leader) to give to most of the Akatsuki's members, he was able to climb into the children's treehouse without having to worry about getting caught.

Shikamaru Nara was a danger to his existence within Konoha. The Nara were too smart for their own good, and even though this wasn't the same generation Kakuzu had learned to fear, there was no doubt in his mind that their collective minds had not dulled much. So this child, even though he was young, was the one person he knew could be the catalyst for his actions within Konohagakure being found out by those in power.

He knew that, given all this information, it would be prudent to drive a wedge between the children and the Nara. But he had gone soft. Not only did he feel guilty at the very thought of driving the children apart, he also knew that harming the Nara was also the wrong thing to do. And he knew that he had become pitifully weak in his older age because ten years ago, he never would have even hesitated over getting rid of the danger that was the Nara.

But now? Now he had actually decided on using a knock-out agent on the child, rather than just knocking him out via the time-tested manner of oxygen deprivation.

Sasori had tested this powder out on various victims before he had offered it to the rest of their organization: it had only been deadly in its inception. But to give to the group of missing-nin, he had ensured it wasn't deadly, seeing how they mostly used it on bounty missions. Kakuzu himself had used it on Hidan countless times- and it had never caused any harm to the stupid religious fanatic.

Disrupting one's oxygen was tricky business and could lead to lifelong consequences that few were even aware of. As a ninja, Kakuzu knew very well just how dangerous oxygen deprivation could be. As a ninja, he knew that this was a good tactic to resort to when he wanted to inflict the worst amount of insult on a person- death was expected in a ninja's life. But irreversible brain damage rendering a ninja as a mere shadow of who they used to be? It was the ultimate instrument of torture.

"Kuzu?"

With a soft grunt, the man motioned with his right hand for both of the children to follow him through the hole he had climbed in through. Then, to ensure he would get them to move, he grabbed Akamaru from his spot beside the pink haired civilian. Then he began to walk down the trunk of the tree.

"Leave the Nara. He'll be unconscious for at least ten more hours. When he wakes up, it'll be morning and you'll have a good explanation made up for what happened to him."

Akamaru yipped, his tail beginning to the thump against his chest, and Kakuzu glared down at the small animal. Said small animal only barked once more, energetically pawing at his arms in an attempt to get close to his face to lick it.

He had gone so soft.


Chouji looked over Shikamaru in a near panic before he followed the old man's orders. Even though he loved Kuzu with all of his heart and knew that the old man only wanted what was best for them... it was still terrifying to see Shikamaru attacked and rendered helpless in what had seemed to have been the blink of an eye.

With shaky hands, the Akimichi brushed off the remnants of a pale, purple-hued, powder from beneath Shikamaru's nose and lips. He forced himself to breathe in deeply and calm his erratic nerves as he moved Shikamaru's limp body over to his sleeping roll. After he had managed to open the roll up, he pushed Shikamaru inside and then covered him up with a soft sheet.

"He's going to be okay." he heard Sakura whisper behind him, her voice just barely trembling. "The old man would never hurt him. He's just unconscious for now, I'm sure."

Chouji knew that; he knew that Kuzu would never hurt anyone important to them on purpose... at least, that's what he thought... No. He couldn't allow himself to think so badly over the Old Man. Yes, he was a dangerous warrior. That didn't mean he was dangerous to them.

He was just kneeling there, in front of Shikamaru, staring down at him... and he was terrified. But he couldn't understand why.

"C'mon, Chouji. We don't wanna keep Kuzu waiting for too long." Sakura's hand was on his shoulder, suddenly reminding him that there was something they had to do.

He swallowed thickly- it hurt to even do that.

"Yeah. You're right."

He didn't like how frozen Shikamaru's face was. He could tell the Nara was sleeping; he knew he was alright... but it was still horribly reminiscent of what someone looked like when they were dead.

"We should get going." Sakura whispered now, as if she didn't want to startle him.

Chouji blinked. "Yeah."

It still took him a couple of seconds to get up. And it took another handful of seconds for him to finally tear his eyes away from Shikamaru's unconscious form.


It took the civilian and the Akimichi a couple of minutes to finally catch up with him and the Inuzuka. And when they did show up, it was with trudging footsteps. Their movements were slow- but not sluggish. They were slowed out of shock rather than laziness. It wouldn't be a stretch if they were moving like this because they were absolutely taken aback by how he had dealt with the Nara problem.

Kakuzu found himself having to bite down a growl to ask them to move faster.

He had gone so soft.

Akamaru barked up at him and burrowed himself into the large sleeve of his cloak, balancing precariously over Kakuzu's outstretched right fore-arm. The man was not accustomed to any animal doing this- admittedly, he was close to worrying about accidentally having the animal fall from his arm and crash to the ground below.

Soft as he may be, though, he wasn't about to feel bad if the animal fell. It was Akamaru that had placed himself in this position- if he fell, it was his own damn fault. And even though Kakuzu was feeling much more sympathetic than he had in years because of these stupid children, he was still very much aware that stupid decisions required harsh lessons to not be repeated.

Besides, the Inuzuka human wasn't even trying to pay attention to the animal. If anything happened to Akamaru, it was the kid's fault. Not Kakuzu's.

"Wait, so you're from Takigakure too?" the Inuzuka questioned the Jinchūriki, all the while Kakuzu remained standing a distance away from them.

His blood froze upon hearing the name of his Village from the boy's mouth. Of course Fū knew where he was from- he had told her precisely everything he knew she would need to hear to trust him. But he had never told any of the mongrels about his home.

Admittedly, his eyes narrowed against his liking upon finding out that the children knew more about him than he cared to approve of. For the Inuzuka to know that he was from Takigakure, it meant that either of the other two had been the one to find that information out. Intelligence was not the Inuzuka's strength, after all. But it was the civilian's.

"Yup! How'd you know?" Fū questioned with the wide-eyed amazement that could only belong to a child.

"Your smell." the boy sniffled slightly, then sneezed. "You both smell the same. Although the Old Man's native scent is a lot more muddled than yours."

"Muddled?"

There was a moment of silence in which the Inuzuka cocked his head to the side and stared at Fū through slitted eyes. He was glaring at the girl, as if he didn't believe in her curiosity.

"Why d'ya wanna know?"

"Kiba? Kuzu? Who's this?"

Now that the civilian and the Akimichi had finally reached them, they were able to see Fū. And in her ever annoying need to constantly sate her curiosity, the civilian had asked who the girl was.

Upon hearing the new voice, Fū perked up and turned around. With a large smile now on her lips, the girl bounded towards the newest arrivals and bowed quickly, immediately telling them who she was and how he was her grand-uncle.

"Grand... Uncle?" the Akimichi asked, stunted.

Kakuzu sighed and nodded his head.

"I'm not here for a simple visit, children. I am here to assign an important mission to all of you."


Fū reminded him of Sakura with how easily excited she seemed to get. But she didn't seem as smart as his best friend- before they got onto the topic of where she came from, she had asked him where they were. It was as if she didn't know what Konoha was. Or what the Forest of Death was.

He didn't trust her. Not at first, at least.

He wasn't some idiot, okay? He wasn't as smart as either of the younger members of his pack, but he was smart enough to know that regular people didn't care about scents. And if she was asking about how scents worked, it was because she wanted to figure out the science behind them. And if she wanted to do that, then that meant that she was going to do something dangerous and didn't want her scent left in the crime scene.

Normal people didn't give a rat's ass about the Inuzuka or their ways. The only people that did where the kind that wanted to outsmart them.

But then Kuzu had said this girl was related to him... and Kiba couldn't help but trust her even less.

These two weren't related. Not biologically, at least. Yeah, they were both from the same Village. Even though Kuzu's natural scent was inundated with blood and the smell of a dozen different ecosystems, there were peculiarities Kiba could assume came from Takigakure. And when he compared those specific undertones to the ones that were much clearer in Fū's scent, he knew they were both the same home.

But they weren't blood-related family.

"As she already said, this is Fū. She is my grandniece." Kuzu reiterated and Kiba turned his disbelieving glare onto him. "You're mission is to keep her safe. As the last family I have left on this world, I need her to be protected. And seeing how you four insist on telling me that I am pack and pack is family," Kuzu turned his eyes specifically on him- they were harsh and left no room for discussion. "I wish for you to introduce her into the pack."

Kiba blinked.

Then he closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

Akamaru barked at him, asking him if he was aware of the fact that these two Taki natives weren't related. Kiba nodded subtly, forcing his brain to work out a possible solution for Kuzu being adamant about adding someone to their small family.

Maybe he didn't know they weren't actually related by blood? It was pretty commonplace in shinobi society for people to sleep around and then claim a child belonged to someone they didn't belong to. As Inuzuka, this was one of those things they had to learn early because of all the societal indiscretions they would accidentally commit by pointing out such lies.

Kiba frowned- it didn't make sense for the Old Man to be tricked in such a manner. He was too smart... but, then again, this was supposed to be his grandniece. That meant that someone had lied to him about his relationship to her. He hadn't been tricked by a lover- instead, he had been tricked by a child.

That made sense... and that hurt.

Kiba cracked one eye open and looked at the members of his pack. They were stunned, absolutely silent as they looked from the girl to the old man. And Kiba couldn't blame either of them.

Well, he was the head of their pack. He may as well step forward and deal with this so they would get somewhere rather than just remain standing dumb-founded in the forest.

He'd have to contemplate the whole genetic relationship some more later on. And he... he wanted to treat the issue carefully. He didn't want to break Kuzu's heart with information he knew was incredibly sensitive. The guy deserved better after the tough life had lived.


The Inuzuka was onto something. Probably, it dealt with his sense of smell.

Smell, Kuzu had learned from the boy, was the Inuzuka's most powerful weapon. With a person's scent, they knew a great degree of the places where a person came from. From that scent, they could figure out the person's home, the most recent place they had been, and could tell a varied degree of the places they had visited. Aside from that, they could also find out the kind of lives people had lived. From just his sense of smell, the boy could tell a person's kill count.

The more he had learned from the boy, the more he had come to worry about the Inuzuka. And because of this, he had gotten the boy to teach him how to evade the kind of tracker that relied on smell.

Kakuzu was man enough to admit that the Inuzuka mongrel had aided him in escaping a few other trackers in other parts of the world with his expertise in muffling and changing smells. But he was also smart enough to know that even with everything he had learned, the Inuzuka was the expert when it came to this topic.

After allowing his heavy words to hang over the children for a few seconds, Kakuzu breathed out heavily. And when the Inuzuka stepped forward, he knew that he was about to ask more information. So he offered it before the boy could even ask his question.

"There's a lot about this world you don't know. There's a lot of danger out there that no one will ever bother to teach you. And there are a lot of bad people out there that would find much joy in attempting to hurt me by attacking my grandniece. This is the reason why I am asking for your help." as he said this, he offered Akamaru back to his partner, who took him with a questioning glint to his eyes.

Kakuzu crossed his arms over his chest, then nodded in Fū's direction. "She's got something dangerous sealed away inside of her. Takigakure was raising her to become a weapon of mass destruction for them. I saved her from their..." upon remembering the selfish nature of the village, Kakuzu growled, "abusive clutches. But as you know, I'm a dangerous man with a dangerous past. If I were to keep her with me, she would get hurt."

"Huh? What do you mean, Granduncle?"

The title was unusual to hear. Both because of inexperience in being called such a thing and because it perpetuated a lie he had concocted.

Turning to the girl, Kakuzu frowned. She was looking up at him with wide, worried eyes.

Children were so easy to fool.

It was a good thing he was around to pro- no. He couldn't think like that. He wouldn't.

"I'll explain myself better the next time I visit." he offered, then turned back to Kiba. "I need you to hide her here, in the Forest of Death. Teach her what you've taught me about masking her scent. Keep her away from prying eyes and keep her safe."

The boy's lips curled up into the beginnings of a sneer, then he stated, "We'll make her pack on one condition, Kuzu."

Kakuzu frowned. But he jutted his chin, non-verbally telling the boy to tell him the condition.

"Next time you visit, you sit down and explain what's inside of her and who's chasing after her."

Kakuzu blinked; then his eyes narrowed.

Telling these children such things could lead them to early ruin. But... suck knowledge could also set them on a path that would ensure them surviving and maybe even cheating such a fate.

"Smarter than you look, boy." he grunted, but soon nodded. "Keep up the training lessons and add her to your training sessions. Taki's done an abysmal job of teaching her the skills required to survive on a battlefield."

It would be harder to get away from Hidan now. The idiot had little common sense and his immortality kept him alive even after his stupidity earned him a well-deserved death.

"I'll be back within three months."

"What?" Fū gasped, "Three months? Granduncle-"

"Fū." he turned to the girl and grabbed her by the shoulders. Then he crouched down so he could look her directly in her eyes, "I'm leaving you in the hands of some of the most capable shinobi on this planet. Ignore the fact they don't have ranks yet- these four have been taught by me. You'll be safe here."

Tears shined within her eyes.

(There was a tugging at his heart he chose to ignore.)

Soon, the girl sniffled. Then she blubbered, "Four?"

Ah, right. Few saw the dog as an individual.

"Akamaru. The pup." he explained before straightening up and nodding at the children. "Stay safe. Keep up your training. And..." he sighed, feeling like an emotional fool for finishing with, "Don't worry. I'll be back soon."


The hardest part about trying to succeed at the mission the Old Man had given them was keeping Fū from getting herself caught by Konohagakure.

"But I really wanted that steak!"

Kiba guffawed at Fū's pout, but soon shook his head and pointed a scolding finger at her face. "If that shop-keep had caught you, he'd have called the police on you! And if the police was called on you, they'd ask about your parents. You ain't from Konoha, Bugsy."

Sakura didn't know why Kiba called Fū Bugsy. But it was common for him to assign nicknames without actually explaining why he had decided on such a title. So Sakura hadn't questioned him about yet.

At the moment, they were trudging back trough the safe path within the Forest of Death to reach their headquarters. Chouji and Akamaru were with Shikamaru and Ino, distracting them to stop them from finding out about their charge.

It had been odd for the Old Man to ask them to take care of his grandniece. Sakura had been completely blindsided by such a request. But, at the same time... she had been honored.

For Kuzu to trust them with his grandniece- tasking them with keeping her safe and a secret from the rest of the Village... it meant that he believed in them. It meant that he knew they were competent and strong kids. And it meant that he was truly a part of their pack.

"But you guys are always running around. I want to run around the Village too."

"Fū, do you want your Granduncle skinning all of us?" Sakura asked her seriously, frowning at the slightly taller girl. "Because if you get caught by Konoha's forces, he'll be pissed."

Fū's green eyes fell to the ground as she pouted. Then, she kicked at a pebble for murmuring, "I know... I'm sorry."

Even though she knew that she wasn't supposed to leave the Forest of Death without any of them, Fū had decided to go on a dangerous field trip into the Village to get some steak. She'd accompanied them on their raids before and had thought she could get away with the thieving action by herself. They had gotten lucky and Kiba had managed to sniff her out before she could have gotten caught. But they had been hanging out with Ino and Shikamaru, and now they would undoubtedly have to deal with their questions when Kiba and she returned.

"Fū, I know it sucks, but you can't wander off by your own." Kiba wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders and pulled her in close, "Promise, I'll bring you some steak tonight."

She perked up upon hearing this, "And you'll stay over to sleep too?"

Kiba nodded softly.

Sakura smiled at them both, remaining quiet during their interaction.

It was nice to see Kiba getting along with someone new- even though this someone was also supposed to be part of their pack. Especially after having seemed so apathetic towards Fū in the beginning.


"You're hiding something."

"Chouji, you've gotta be honest with us! We're your best friends!"

Akamaru growled at Ino, snapping at her from his perch on top of Chouji's head. The Akimichi closed his eyes and sighed at the pup's aggressive actions and sighed.

Ever since Kuzu's grandniece had been left with them, it had gotten a thousand times more difficult to keep Ino and Shikamaru content with the mystery they were hiding.

The morning after Kuzu had knocked Shikamaru out, the Nara had asked Chouji exactly how he had ended up sleeping within his sleeping bag. He couldn't remember having fallen asleep and his lungs had burned when he awoken. There had been something off about the way he had fallen asleep and he'd wanted Chouji's side of the story to begin to understand why he felt that something was off.

As Chouji had explained to Shikamaru that he had just fallen asleep on him and Sakura without even saying a simple goodnight, Kiba had taken Fū off to teach her how to hunt and begin to explain how to hide her scent from trackers. Sakura had prepared a fire for when Kiba came back with the food so she could cook. He had been left to deal with the curious Shikamaru. And ever since then, he had been the only person to deal with Shikamaru and Ino's questions.

"There're some things that are just for the pack to know, you guys. You've got to understand that." Chouji tried to placate them, only to receive an incensed huff from Ino almost immediately.

"Yeah, I understand- I understand that those two bad influences have corrupted you and you don't even notice how badly they've hurt you!"

"Hurt me?" Chouji couldn't stop himself from gasping. "Ino, what're you talking about?"

Ino glowered at him. "You're not the Chouji I grew up with. And it's because of those two savages!"

"Ino, you gotta calm down." Shikamaru's eyes were wide, seemingly as surprised by the insult to Sakura and Kiba as Chouji was. "You can't call them savages."

With a shake of her head, the blonde turned on her heels and hissed back, "Goodbye. I'm not dealing with either of you until you've come to your senses!"

Chouji stared after the girl's retreating form. But within the busy crowd of Konoha's marketplace at three in the afternoon, it was easy for the Yamanaka to disappear into the throng.

"That was sudden." Shikamaru hissed out, only to breathe out heavily. "But she's got a point- no matter how tactless she was. Chouji, you're not the same. You're hiding something big from us... and..." now he jammed his hands into his pockets, "we understand that you've got your pack. But it hurts to know that your oldest friends aren't good enough for you anymore."

"What? Shika- no, that's not-"

Shikamaru shook his head, "I'm gonna go make sure Ino doesn't get herself in trouble."

"Shika..."

He couldn't believe it... Shikamaru's voice sounded as if he was near tears...

Everything had gone so wrong so fast...

And he was caught between two worlds without a single clue as to how he could unite them.


After a few days of hanging out with Kuzu's not-grandniece, Kiba had decided he could trust her. She was an oddball like him and Sakura. She hadn't been asking about his skills because she wanted to beat them; she had been asking about them because she had been genuinely caught off guard by them.

By now, a month had passed since the Old Man had left the girl with them. But Kiba didn't feel like he would be back any time soon. For some reason, he didn't believe he'd be back for, at least, another month.

That didn't really bother him all that much. Ever since he had started sleeping over with Fū during the night, he'd learned enough about her to decide that not only did he like her, but also that she had a place in the pack. Her life in her old village had been tough- even though she had always remained optimistic- and her relationship with her family had been just about non-existent.

In many ways, Fū was like him. And she didn't judge him when he did something he knew that Sakura had once scolded him over. She didn't ask him to use utensils for eating; hell, she ripped meat apart with her fingers too. And she didn't care about him appearing dirty and caked in mud. Usually, after their adventures in the Forest of Death, she was covered in even more filth than him!

Besides, now that he had taken to sleeping in the pack's headquarters to keep guard over Fū while Pinkie and Pork Chop returned to their family, he had managed to avoid getting into any more stupid arguments with his mother and sister. And they really tell him anything over sleeping in the Forest of Death because he always appeared at some point during the day in the Inuzuka Compound to let the dogs know he was alive and he had yet to miss a day of school.

Yeah... Fū had been a great addition to their pack.

Kiba was still bothered, though, by the fact that she wasn't, biologically, Kuzu's grandniece, even though he clearly believed such a thing.

His thoughts were interrupted when the faint smell of a newcomer into the Forest appeared within the smells around him.

Immediately, Kiba frowned.

Kiba sniffed at the air to make sure that he had smelled correctly and Akamaru began to growl softly.

"Konoha natives; two of them." he whispered to his partner. "Both males."

"Aburame and Yamanaka." Akamaru informed him. "Chunin-level at least."

Kiba agreed with what his partner stated. And immediately he began to formulate a plan of escape. There was no way the three of them could take on these men. Their scents were filled with blood. That was a clear indicator of the danger they posed.

"Fū." he kicked at her bed-roll, earning a groan from her half-asleep body. "Get up. We're being watched. We've got to go."

This was the first time anyone came to watch them. That meant that they weren't supposed to know anything at all about the traps they had laid out in the tree house. And this meant that their best bet for an escape was to- no. Wait. Yamanaka were sensors and Aburame bugs could gnaw through ninja wire in a few seconds if they were strong enough.

Kiba's eyes widened.

The scents were close. No longer where they by the periphery of the treehouse. They were now below the treehouse.

"Fū!" he growled.

The girl jumped up and smiled broadly, "Ninja tag?"

"What- no! Fū-"

She winked.

Kiba blinked. And then realization dawned on him.

She wasn't proposing an idiotic game. She was proposing an escape plan via a flurry of chaos.

Closing his mouth, Kiba nodded.

He really hoped they'd be able to get out of this. He didn't know what these people wanted, but he knew that they weren't allies of his. If they had been, they would have already called up for them to come down. No, these two were here as enemies. And because of that, he would not be holding back.

Crawling towards the edge of the treehouse, Kiba grabbed hold of the beaten and battered targets they would normally use for playing rather than training. They had stopped using them around a year ago, when they had deemed their aiming good enough to be almost perfect.

"This is going to be fun." Fū began to clap giddily, all the while Kiba chucked a target over at her. After she had caught, Kiba smirked at her.

"Hitting the head's fifty points."

~..~..~

And that is the chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it. Please review and tell me what you thought.