Insomnia is a very effective writing tool I must say. Sorry for this sporadic upload schedule, my mental health is not the best right now. But I'm pushing through it to update this, so bear with me. This chapter will be very messy because I'm deliriously tired, but I know for a fact that if I leave this until morning this won't be touched until Friday. So enjoy.

CHAPTER 9

Mind Games

As Temari took off running back the way they'd come before entering the building, she saw several cloaked figures leap out of different buildings and join her pursuers. She swore loudly. They'd been expecting them. They planned this out very well, but Temari was hoping to spoil those plans a bit. If she could shake off the men. She just needed time to think, time these cloaked men weren't giving her. If she slowed at all, they fired kunai and shuriken at her, or else tried to grab hold of her. She rattled her brain for any sort of plan. "Come on, think!" Temari yelled to herself, "What would Shikamaru do?" That's when a plan began to form in her mind. It was risky and poorly thought through, but it was better than nothing.

She continued hopping through the village, trying to find a dead end. She hoped that this would thin the herd just a little bit, so that she could take them on herself. She knew she'd loose if she tried now. At last, after 5 minutes of searching, she found one. She charged towards the wall at the end of the alley, counting down for the moment she'd make her move. She could hear the men jeering that she trapped herself in a corner, but she ignored them. She kept running until she was right about to collide with the wall, then she pulled out her fan and used it to launch herself over it, landing safely on the other side.

Right as her feet hit the ground, Temari heard a deafening crunch come from the other side of the wall. It appeared she hadn't given some of them enough time to react. But the ones in the back did have enough time, so they were able to clear it. But the moment they appeared on Temari's side; she used her fan to send them flying into the air. The only problem with that was the backlash broke the wall, allowing the rest of her pursuers to get through without worry. That was fine with her, since there was only ten or so left. She quickly got up from where she was sitting and ran up the roof of a building. The cloaked men didn't follow. Instead, they ordered everyone out of it and began to break it down. "Well, well," Temari called patronisingly, "It seems you boys have finally learned your lesson. And it only took the loss of 30 other men!"

This comment enraged the men, who stopped trying to break the building down and leapt onto it, right into Temari's fan. She managed to blow half of them away. The other have successfully evaded the fan and encircled her. "Well now, this should be much more fun" said Temari, before engaging the 5 remaining men all at once. Thanks to the sheer size of her fan, she was able to take them on with ease. She didn't even need to use her wind, just duel with them until she knocked the Kunai out of their hands, then smack them over the head with the fan, similar to what she did with Shikamaru whenever he was being stupid, but much harder obviously. Soon enough, she was standing in a circle of 5 unconscious bodies. But she didn't have time to celebrate. Without even a glance at her victory, she leapt of the roof and headed back to the main building, hoping that the others had won their fights. She also couldn't shake the feeling that she'd seen those cloaks before.

Sakura definitely had less men chasing than Temari had, which would've insulted the pink-haired healer had she not needed to worry about getting lost. She got turned around several times in this place, a few of those times nearly costing her life. But she managed to evade her pursuers and keep running through the town. After a while of this, she'd finally come up with a semi-decent plan if she did say so herself, which she did. Her plan was simple, slow down at every corner as she turned at it. Once she rounded the corner, she'd turned around and smack anyone close enough with her tai-jutsu. The plan worked like a charm. She picked off her pursuers one by one every time she needed to turn at all. There were a few moments where she had to smash a few walls in order to keep going, which also served as a means of scaring her pursuers away.

Eventually there were only ten men left, and they were keeping their distance. That was fine with Sakura. She continued to run and hop her way through the city, using its layout to get the drop on the cloaked men a few times, bringing the total down to 6. Eventually she found herself in the town square, a big open area with a large statue of an old Shinobi, a few benches and fountains dotted her and there and a few different grassy patches across it. Once she reached it, she stopped and turned to face the cloaked men. "If you tell me where you're keeping Sasuke and the others," she said menacingly, "I promise not to hurt you to badly!" She cracked her knuckles to emphasise her point. But this move only caused the man at the front-most part of the group to laugh. "I'll admit you got us good with those corners," he told her smugly, "But let's see how you handle a real fight."

With that he charged at her with all his might. But before he could even lay a hand on her, Sakura simply grabbed him, cracked his head against one of the fountains and threw him at the other men, knocking one to the ground. "Anyone else?" Sakura asked sweetly, once again cracking her knuckles. Despite how nervous and terrified they clearly were, the other five men came at her with all their might. Sakura beat them all unconscious within 2 minutes. She looked around at the unconscious men she'd hit, wiped a bit of blood off of her cheek, then started running and jumping back to where Takisha was waiting. "If he doesn't give up where Sasuke and the others are," she said to herself, "I'll personally beat him to an inch of his life!"

Hinata didn't try to fight the men chasing her as she ran through the streets. She used every chance she could get to count how many people were chasing her. She eventually deducted that the total was 16. Judging by that number, she'd need o charge up the 128-palm trigram. Meaning that she had to knock the attackers down with only eight hits each, which wasn't much. So to help herself, she began to test to see if she could combine the 128 palm with her Gentle Fist. Once she'd deduced that she could, she began to lead her pursuers away from the village.

If the men were confused as to why she was running towards the gate, they didn't voice it, they just continued to pursue her, throwing their kunai and shuriken as they did so. Hinata was able to use her Byakugan to avoid them. Soon, she left the city behind her as she ran to the clearing where Naruto was captured. Once she reached it, she stopped. The men tried to use this to catch her, but she dodged all of them. When the last person flew passed her, she began her counterattack.

"Tetragram!" Hinata said as she felt her chakra flow into her hands and spotted her target's weak points, "128 Palms!" In order for this to work, she needed to hit every target no more than eight times, or she was done. So, she smacked on of her attacker's Chakra points, bringing him down in eight hits. Without a word she moved onto the next man, and the next, and the next, bringing each down in eight hits. She was successfully able to dodge each and every attack they used as well thanks to her Byakugan. It wasn't long before she was the only one left standing. But she didn't celebrate her victory. She just leapt into the trees and began to run back to the big building.

Ino was worried. She wasn't as strong as the others, and she knew it. Which was probably why she had the least amount of pursuers, only 10. But that didn't matter. They were all probably very confident that they could take her down easily, so they decided to wait until she slowed enough. Ino knew that she wasn't strong enough to be able to take on ten men at once. All she had was her brains, kunai, explosives, shuriken and Mind-transfer Jutsu. But using that was a risk. If she missed, they'd have her for sure. So, she rattled her brains to think of anything at all that might work. She eventually thought of something rather clever. "Shikamaru must've rubbed off on me a but" she said to herself.

The next time she rounded a corner, she immediately created a Shadow Clone. She ducked behind some boxes and watched as the men all continued to run after her clone. Once the last man had passed, she used her Mind Transfer on him. When she did, she rummaged through his bag until she found all his Chakra wire. Then she made him drop it all on the ground, then turn and run headfirst into a wall. She ended the transfer right as he was about to hit the wall, leaving a painful crunch sound behind her.

Ino made sure that the other men didn't go back to check the noise, she snuck out of her hiding place. She picked up the Chakra wire and climbed onto the buildings. She ran along them until she caught up with her Clone. She watched as her Clone ran into a junction, then she quietly ordered it to stop. It did, faking exhaustion once it stopped. The men immediately piled onto it, trying to pin it to the ground. The real Ino used this moment to use her stolen Chakra wire and block off all the exits from this junction.

Then she waited, watching as the men realised the Clone wasn't there anymore. "It was a Clone!" one of them yelled, "Quickly, find the real one!" "Up here boys!" Ino called. They turned their heads to look at her, only noticing just then that she'd blocked off all the alleys, even upwards. "Try to get through those and your Chakra will be drained," she yelled in a sing-song voice. The men tried to charge at her, but they were blocked by the wire. Ino smiled at her handiwork, then pulled out a few paper bombs. She threw them into the makeshift cage. The men dodged them, letting the bombs fly onto the centre. But that's what Ino intended. The bombs exploded, throwing the men into the Chakra wire, which detached from the walls and wrapped around them. The men fell to the ground and felt their energy drain. Ino smiled at them, then kicked them unconscious. Then she ran back to the meeting point, hoping the others were alright. As she ran, she couldn't help but notice how familiar those cloaks were, but she couldn't for the life of her think why.

Sorry for that delirious ramble of a chapter lol. But I'll be on my midterm break this Friday, so I won't be updating at night for next week. But no promises about updating on my phone. Next chapter will have a fight in it. A warning, I'm not good at those, but I'll try my best. See you there.