-Matsuri's POV-

A smile tugged at my lips as I jogged, my breath making puffy little wisps in the cold air. Hinata woke up yesterday and Sakura woke up in the middle of the night last night so my friends were out of immediate danger, finally.

"Can you believe it? We were laying right next to them!"

I looked over to see Ino complaining about something to Tenten, who looked amused. The blond caught my curious gaze and gave me a look that said she hoped I would give her a better reaction than our other friend just had, "Sakura and Sasuke woke us up last night!"

A warm blush met my cheeks, "Woke you up how?" I knew the answer before she gave me an incredulous look.

"They were fucking right next to you? That's baller! I didn't think the Uchiha had it in him," I turned my head to see Kankuro and Kiba, the former being the one to speak.

Ino laughed loudly, "Sakura? Fucking? Hell no! They were messing around though."

Tenten finally cut in, "Are you sure it's not just a misunderstanding? Neither of them seem the type to do that kind of thing."

Sai chimed in from ahead of us, "Actually, he was quite the playboy in highschool."

Tenten shook her head, "But surely Sakura wouldn't do that, right? I mean, Ino, come on. You know her better than any of us."

The blond shrugged, "I mean, if I didn't see her on top of him like that I wouldn't believe it, but I did," an almost proud look came to her face, "My baby is growing up and exploring her urges. Gah, I'm gonna cry."

Almost everyone laughed, even the couple others running ahead who were simply listening rather than joining the conversation. Tenten caught my gaze and gave me a teasing look, "What about you, Matsuri?"

A few others turned to look at me expectantly and I glared at the tall young woman with a red face, "What about me?"

Ino responded, catching on, "How far have you and Gaara gone?"

My blush heightened further and I opened my mouth to deny her accusation, only for Kankuro to interrupt, "Whoa, hold up! You're telling me Gaara's getting more action than me?" Everyone glanced back to see the boy in question glaring at his sibling as he jogged behind us.

I.

Was.

Mortified.

I reached over and slapped the older Subaku boy and glared when he grinned wolfishly at me, "It's not like that, stop it!"

He snickered, leaning forward slightly without slowing down his pace and speaking in a joking tone, "Wanna test which brother's better?"

His sister yelled from ahead of us, "You're such a pig, Kankuro!" Those around us laughed and I was interrupted again by the unmistakable sound of a bullet narrowly missing and flying past.

We scattered without a word and everyone quickly found something to use for cover. I only had a handheld taser on my person, so I was useless in a long distance battle, but Sai, Ino, and Tenten all had handguns. The only people back at the house were Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke, and Shikamaru.

Across the street, I saw a few of the others trying to peek and catch a glimpse of where the shooter was and followed their lead. As close to the ground as possible, I crawled forward to peek around the edge of the truck I was hiding behind and frantically searched the direction the shot had come from.

Another bullet flew by, but it wasn't as close so I didn't flinch and instead narrowed down the location it'd come from. Whoever it was was using a silencer because the sound was much quieter than it should've been. I was confident the attacker was in one of two houses and swiftly sprinted across the road and dove behind the house Temari and Neji were using for cover before creeping around the side of it, slowly pulling the taser out of my pocket in case I ended up needing it. The two inferred that I'd located the bad guy and silently shadowed me.

It took almost five minutes for me to work my way up to the last house on the street and everyone was within a couple yards of my location. The shooting had stopped a minute or two ago, but they might've just lost sight of us and could be watching closely for a good shot so I continued as though they were for sure up there.

The issue was, there wasn't any cover for the next big jump. I was going to have to run across the street and through a small yard, completely vulnerable. With my teeth grit, I snuck forward a bit, crouched low to the ground.

"Matsuri, don't!" Temari hissed.

I raised my hand to silence her and peered around the corner, only to swiftly pull back when a bullet flew by. My eyes danced over the four others using the same cover as me. Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, and Kiba. Then I looked over to where everyone else was, across the yard behind a garage. Ino, Tenten, Sai, and Neji.

I was the smallest one by far. If anyone had a chance of making it, it was me. The smaller the target, the harder they were to hit.

"Kiba, which house is it?" I whispered.

He furrowed his brow before turning his head so his ear was facing the direction the shots were coming from. After a moment, he responded, "The one on the left. Upstairs," he paused before hesitantly adding, "You're not planning on-!"

I didn't wait for him to finish his question and took a calming breath before dashing out from behind my cover and sprinting with all my might. A bullet grazed my neck and I heard my friends yell, but I successfully sped through the front yard of the house and slid behind the side of it with a hand to the wound. It stung and I realized it was going to at least need stitches, but it wasn't bleeding so quickly that it worried me so I wiped the blood into the grass at my feet before catching my breath and looking up the side wall of the house.

There was one window on the second floor that faced the direction I'd come from, so that had to be the shooter's perch. The question was, would they move since they didn't see me fall or would they assume since blood had splattered onto the concrete that I was lying here in the grass dying? Either way, I had to be prepared.

It was too dangerous to use one of the two doors that gave entry to the house, so I needed to find a way to either scale the place or draw them outside. I was leaning towards scaling the place because my eyes were actively dancing across the bricks and coming up with a plan.

After double checking that both entrances were still shut, I put the handle of the taser in my mouth before wiping my hands on my thighs and climbing on top of the central air unit and then grasping onto a brick above my head that was out an inch or so further than the rest. After testing my grip to make sure I could do it, I pulled myself up until I could lift my foot to a brick only slightly lower than the one my hands were grasping.

The slightest miscalculation of where I placed my weight would send me falling to the ground, but I tried not to think about that as I brought my other foot up to take the place of one of my hands at the same instant that I grabbed onto the gutter. It was likely the thin metal clasps wouldn't be able to support my weight for more than a few seconds so I had to be quick about it.

I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath before swiftly lifting my other hand to the gutter and pushing up off the brick footholds at the same time I pulled myself upward. The metal creaked a few times, but thankfully only snapped once I had a good enough hold on the roof to keep myself from tumbling down.

My limbs shook slightly as I let out a relieved sigh and looked around to make sure no one had spotted me yet. I took the taser out of my mouth and gripped it tightly in my hand once more as I tiptoed as light-footed as possible to the next level of roofing and climbed it much more easily than the first one because there was no gutter I had to worry about breaking.

It was hard to keep my footsteps completely silent because winter boots against shingles is a naturally loud thing, but I did the best that I could and then finally I was at the edge of the roof directly above the only window the shooter could've been using. I winced when I looked down and saw my blood was still running down to stain my coat, but ultimately had to push it to the back of my mind. It didn't even hurt with all the adrenaline rushing through my veins.

Peeking over the ledge, I confirmed the window was still open and took a few moments to mentally do the calculations necessary to use the roof's edge to come down and slide through the open window. I had to be prepared to go for the kill because when I hit that orange-haired guy, he didn't seem to feel it. Hinata also confirmed that the guy she stabbed didn't even react to it.

The wind blew and I held my breath and listened for movement. After hearing nothing, I pictured the shooter sitting still and silent at the window as they waited for someone to come within their range. Before I could make myself nervous about it, I put my body in motion and turned my wrist as I gripped the edge so I wouldn't snap it as I came down before using the momentum of my body falling to swing in.

My foot hit someone and both of us clattered to the floor. My knees hit the wood floor hard, but I shot up without hesitation and threw myself at the shooter. As I wrestled them into a complicated hold, I found it odd that they weren't that much bigger than me, but didn't dwell on it in fear I'd lose the upper hand if I did.

After a few more moments, I successfully had them immobilized and spoke in a strained voice, "Who are you?"

The person, whom I believed was male, responded in a calm voice as though I wasn't cutting off circulation to each of his four limbs to the point that if he struggled too carelessly I'd easily break them, "Let go." I was right in that it was a boy, but judging by his voice, he was even younger than me.

I held on tighter when he fought against my hold, "Tell me why you were shooting at us and I won't hurt you!"

The boy stopped fighting, but I kept my hold on him tight in case it was a tactic to catch me off guard, "We are searching for humans in need of occupation."

It wasn't the blatant way he confirmed that he was, indeed, one of the people who had that weird veiny thing inside their neck that made my eyes widen in realization that I'd made a huge mistake.

"You said you would let go if I told you my reason. Let go now."

It was the fact that he used the word "we".

The hairs on my arm turned up as I sensed someone approaching behind me and I shoved the boy away as I rose to my feet and lunged toward the second person, only to freeze before my fist could land when my eyes lay upon a kid. It was a child, a girl with yellow hair in twin-tails and a pistol pointed at my chest. She couldn't even be ten years old.

The door downstairs opening snapped me out of my stupor and I dove to the side in time for the bullet she shot to only graze my side instead of kill me. I tried to kick her legs out from under her and she tripped while dodging it, falling back onto her bottom, but I couldn't take advantage of the fact because the boy was suddenly on top of me.

He snapped my wrist without missing a beat, making me cry out in pain, before taking my taser and moving my coat and shirt out of the way to push it against my stomach and press the trigger. Screams tore through my chest as electricity shot through my midsection, freezing the rest of my body so I couldn't struggle against him anymore. You're not supposed to use it for more than five seconds at a time, but he was keeping his finger firmly on the trigger.

There was a gunshot and then the boy wasn't on top of me anymore. I gasped for breath, sounds of pain mixing into the sounds, and let myself lay there: stunned both mentally and physically.

My eyes danced to meet Gaara's eyes when he suddenly appeared at my side, "I-I-It's a k-kid! T-They're kids!" It was hard to talk.

He didn't say anything, but surprised me by reaching forward to slide his hand slightly under the collar of my coat to press it against my chest. After a moment, he said, "You're afraid."

I nodded, tears in my eyes, "I-I'm afraid."