A.N. Once again I'm asking you to bear with this chapter since it's being written from my phone and at night. The night is basically the only time I'm able to write something, same goes for the other fic. But anyway I hope you enjoy this, because this is where the story begins to pick up.

CHAPTER 8

A game of Cat and Mouse

The recipient of the message didn't show up until that night. Temari volunteered to stay and keep watch while the rest of them found a place to camp. She continued to sit up on the roof for hours, waiting for another cloaked figure to arrive and pick the letter up. Eventually, as Temari's eyes began to droop a lot and she had to lean on her fan to stay upright, Hinata landed next to her. "You should go get some sleep," she told her, "I've slept enough, I can take over for a while." Temari shook her head.

"I'm fine!" she said angrily, "I can keep going." "No you can't!" Hinata replied sternly, "I can see that you're struggling to stay awake. Go up to the cliff near where we found Sai's note, we set up camp there." Then, before Temari could argue anymore, Hinata sat down and activated her Byakugan. Temari growled angrily, but stood up and leapt over to where Hinata described. The camp was just 4 tents and a spot for a campfire. Temari spotted hers, crawled in and fell asleep the moment she hit the floor.

Throughout the night, the other three swapped places. After Hinata spent three hours watching, Sakura woke up and swapped with her. Then, three hours after that, Ino did the same for Sakura. Eventually the morning came and the other three women reawoke and joined Ino in watching the bench. They'd brought her breakfast with them, which she devoured immediately. Sakura wanted to make a joke about Ino's constant concern about her weight, but restrained herself due to the circumstances. Once Ino had finished eating, they went back to staring at the bench.

Finally, after half an hour of waiting, a man wearing the same cloak as the one from the day before arrived at the bench and lifted the seat up. Temari recognised the cloak from somewhere, but she couldn't quite place it. Judging by the look on her face, Ino recognised it as well, but Temari couldn't think of where they'd seen it. The cloaked man picked up the letter and read it. For one terrifying moment, the women feared he'd notice that someone already read it, but thankfully, he just read it, slipped it into a pocket under the cloak and walked off. The four women followed after, quietly as they could.

The cloaked man walked through Utagaikure as stealthily as he could, trying not to be seen as much as possible. Of course he was failing miserably and didn't even realise it. The four kunoichi kept as close as possible to him without being seen, and using Hinata's Byakugan whenever needed. He must've felt like he was being followed however, because he led them on a winding and confusing path, trying to shake off any tails he may or may not have. Eventually he felt satisfied that no one was following him and he went off to a large square building at the very back of the town. "That must be it!" Tamari whispered happily. "But what about Sai's message?" Ino wondered. "You don't think it was a red herring do you?" Hinata asked. "No," Ino replied, "That's definitely Sai's handwriting. Maybe they just change their positions after a certain amount of days or something."

While Ino and Hinata speculated on Sai's note, Sakura and Temari watched as the cloaked man approached two other figures wearing the same outfit who were guarding the door of the building. They three men looked around to see if anyone was watching. Temari and Sakura ducked quickly, pulling Hinata and Ino with them. Ino pulled out a mirror and held it over their cover. Through the reflection, the four kunoichi watched as the men thought there was no one watching, before slipping into the seemingly abandoned building. "On my count," Temari told the other three,"We storm the building and get the captives out of there." The other three nodded. Temari did one last check to see if they were coming out. Then, she held up three fingers. Then two. Then one. Then the four kunoichi leapt off of the building and charged at the big main one. They ran at the door and pulled out their weapons. Temari swung her huge fan at it, ripping it from its hinges. As the door flew off, the four women ran in. Only to find the place completely deserted.

Well, not quite. For there was one man standing in the middle of the large room. An old man with a walking stick. "YOU!" Temari yelled out. The old man turned around, revealing himself to be none other than Takisha Nezumi himself. Sakura clenched her fists in anger and gridded her teeth at the sight of him. "You dirty rat!" she yelled, charging at him full force. But before she could completely cross the room however, the three ninja they'd followed flew in from nowhere and pinned her to the ground. But she just angrily shock them off and tried to keep running at Takisha, but all that happened was that Takisha used his Chakra wire to throw her back with the rest of them. "I must say," Takisha commented, in a voice that was unlike the one he had in Konoha, "I honestly didn't expect that dog man to make it back to Konoha alive. I felt sure he would die along the way."

At those words, Hinata lit her fists up. "Where's Naruto you bastard?" she asked, in a fierce and angry voice, completely different to her normal whispery one. Takisha chuckled. "I don't think I shall be telling you that," he said, "It's not like you're going to be seeing him or the other brats any time soon." Temari's anger had reached its boiling point. "So you're going to kill them?" she asked furiously. "That's for me to know and you to never learn" Takisha replied. "Then why bring us here?" Ino asked, her fists raised. "Simple," Takisha replied, "My boss needs you to lie to Kakashi-sama."

The four women stood there in a confused silence. "What do you mean?" Temari asked. "It's very simple," Takisha replied, "We're going to put upu under a genjutsu to make you think that the Ninja are dead, which you'll tell Kakashi-sama. By the time the genjutsu wears off it'll be too late. People will find out that their beloved Uzumaki Naruto is dead and all Hell will break loose across the Shinobi world." Takisha chuckled at these words. "Now hold still and let me take you to our boss." When he finally finished speaking, Chakra wires flew out of his robes and towards the Kunoichi. Temari smacked them away with her fan and they turned and ran.

But a whole load more ninja appeared out of nowhere and blocked the entrance. Sakura and Hinata looked at each other, then nodded. Then they charged up their Chakra in their hands, before punching the ground beneath the ninjas' feet. As the ninja staggered, the four women pushed passed them and ran out onto the street. As they ran, they heard Takisha yell out, "Stop then you idiots!" Once they were on the street, Temari quickly aaif to the others, "Split up. Meet back here once you've dealt with your tails, then we can cut off the rat's." The rest of them nodded, then they ran in separate directions, with cloaked ninja chasing after them. Their game of Cat and Mouse had begun again, but this time, the roles had reversed.

I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Sorry the start kinda dragged a but, but I'm severely sleep deprived and can't really think straight. Forgive the mistakes in this chapter. Hopefully I'll have enough sense to write the next one on my laptop so there'll be fewer mistakes. But anyway, see you soon with chapter 9.