Reveries of Life, Love, and Revenge

A/N: Oh, I'm going to have so much fun with this chapter. Firstly, there's that battle with Niraku, then there's going to be Gaara's tormenting time… And some more scenes with Niraku and Orochimaru and Kabuto… Eh, nonetheless, it'll be fun. I'm not going to talk anymore or tell you anything else about what's going to happen. Um… This chapter should be long too, if I play my cards right… and I hope I do. There's not going to be any fluff in this chapter, but there will be a battle scene. I'll try to make it long. Also, Nikko will make a reappearance, and I'm going to push myself into elaborating about Ino, Sakura, and Naruto. They're part of the fight too, anyway. What else…. Oh, prepare for some fluffy stuff around Shikamaru and Zeo, nothing to high in magnitude though. Nanji will keep her appearance in this chapter for reasons. Now, to reply to reviews…

To Magicians of the Yami: Eh heh heh… You wanted me to hurry up, and I did, right? Just know that you can always trust me when it comes to updating the chapters quickly for now until the school year starts.

Angel Suzuka 13: Thanks! I'm trying my best to update every day now. Middle school is coming up in about eleven days, so I'm pushing myself hard to get to at least chapter ten before September 1st! Warning and disclaimer: This chapter contains grotesque content and/or offensive language. Viewer discretion is certainly advised. Also, I do not own Naruto in any way whatsoever. Sasuke, Kiba, Kabuto, and all those nice original characters are mine and my friend Anna's. Do not claim any of my/Anna's characters as yours or use them in a story without my/Anna's permission. The same things apply for any original jutsus.

Chapter 7: Dilemmas of the Aftermath -------------------------------------------------

"Play, huh?" The chestnut-haired kunoichi mimicked mockingly, changing her tone slightly. Niraku pursed her lips at this, then squinted her eyes in agitation. Sasuke let out a smirk, but Zeo kept her face emotionless. The old blonde threw a senbon down at the Genins, but they easily side-stepped it. "She's just toying with us." The Uchiha exclaimed agitatedly, cracking his knuckles. Zeo had already clasped a kunai in her hand, and Mitsarugi was unwrapping her fully bandaged right arm. She'd have to use some of her advanced bloodline jutsus in this situation. Sasuke had already summoned his Sharingan, the once onyx-black pupils now adapting to more of a blood red shade. Niraku's pursed lips molded into a smirk. Oh, yes. Let's test their powers to almost a full extent, shall we? "Are you ready, kiddies?"

"Bring it."

At this comment, the golden-haired hunter-nin soared into the air like an acrobat, constantly throwing her senbon down at the Genins like they were score parts on a dart game. She wasn't allowed to hurt them, but Orochimaru never preached to her about knocking them out, right? That was what she had intended to do; knock each an every one of those three rookie ninjas out by hitting a non-lethal puncture point. Mitsarugi, of course, had figured out Niraku's plan quickly, being as she took the hunter-nin classes when she was younger. The senbon were thrown at angle so it would hit the weakest point in the upper-neck area. If the needle successfully made contact, which it had a high chance of doing so because of its high speed, then the one who got hit would at first feel numb, then collapse onto the ground. It would only take that person a few minutes to get knocked out afterwards. Sasuke had managed to dodge the senbon that were thrown towards him, but had somewhat of a difficulty in doing so. Zeo had also dodged the senbon, but with less difficulty, due to concentrating fully.

The chestnut-haired Urashima fumbled with a long chain of hand seals, "Ninpou, Kaze Shouheki no Jutsu!" This jutsu was commonly known as Mitsarugi's 'Wind Barrier' jutsu skill. It temporarily used her chakra to compact wind into a semi-strong barrier. Simply put, this would allow the three Genins to avoid Niraku's needles why they planned ahead with strong jutsus or something of the sort. Niraku, landing back on top of the roof of a Sound village building, was popping her shoulder back into joint with a quirked brow. A wind barrier jutsu, huh?

Ino frantically tried to lift herself up off the ground, only to receive a quite painful punch from Kabuto when she got mid-air. Her long blonde hair was now rested upon her shoulders and on her back, and her movements ceased to continue. It just wasn't worth trying to move now. Her face was bruised on her cheek from the constant physical contact hits issued by Kabuto. Sakura clasped a kunai tightly in her hand, as she watched the scene. Never had she imagined Kabuto so strong. He had managed to sever the nerves in Naruto's right leg, not to mention twist the blonde boy's arm to a point in which it almost looked to be on the verge of breaking. The once hyper Uzumaki was now lying quite still up against the east barrier wall, clutching his arm. Apparently, when Kabuto had forcefully thrown him at the wall, his arm fractured or something of the sort.

The coral-colored haired leaf shinobi had run over to Naruto, trying to help him get up. The boy, unfortunately, couldn't move, due to the nerve system in his right leg. Alona had been punched in the stomach and doubled over, clutching that area tightly. Her red hair had shielded her face slightly, the length not exactly long enough to rest upon her shoulders just yet. She was cursing to herself on the inside. This… was just too much. All this time, she had trusted Kabuto. Yet… he turned. The silver haired Genin had already made his way over to Sakura, his hand lifted in mid-air. She slapped it away, glaring furiously. Kabuto was taken aback at this rash action from Sakura, "No, no, no, what's with the scary face, Sakura-chan? I'm quite surprised to see something from you…" The Yakushi's hands inched nearer to the young Haruno, the bluish glow never ceasing. He lightly touched her forehead, causing Sakura to back up against the east wall. This, certainly, had a high chance of corrupting her central nervous system. The spectacled assistant was about to continue, until he felt a shuriken lodge painfully in his back. He turned, only to face a quite furious Alona.

Mitsarugi turned to Zeo, "Zeo-san… I heard you have an advanced bloodline. I think… you might be able to help us out, if you can conjure up something…" The snow-haired kunoichi merely nodded. She would know what to do. After all those years of practice, she could create any type of weather abnormality she wished, and decide what magnitude it was to be. Simply put, if she wanted light rain fall, she'd get it. If she wanted something more serious, she'd get that, too. That's why Naruto's nickname for her was the 'Weather-woman'. "What'd you have in mind?" The eleven year old thought about that for a second. A hurricane would be too destructive; lava flow would be too destructive, too… A strong wind storm wouldn't do enough…

Wait. What about a lightning storm?

Mitsarugi tossed her chestnut hair over her shoulder, "I was thinking along the lines of a lightning storm. If we're lucky, the lightning will strike Niraku, being as she's so high up. The only problem we'll have is keeping her in the same place." She gave a slight nod at that, then looked at Sasuke. "How much chakra do you think you have left, Sasuke? Percentage-wise, please."

"…I'd say about seventy-five as an estimate rounded to the nearest five."

Mitsarugi thought about for a second. The leader instinct began to kick in, and her mind began to formulate a plan. Her hands lingered close to her senbon carrier. She had an idea. "… I have a plan. Sasuke, I think you could use your Katon Housenka jutsu. If it successfully hits, she'll most likely fall back from the force. It's… physics. When she's down temporarily, I could hit her in a certain puncture point to paralyze her for a bit. Then, Zeo, maybe you could get us a nice lightning storm?" The raven-haired boy looked at Zeo, who nodded in reply. He went to perfectly working away at hand seals, the wind barrier intentionally wearing off. Niraku twitched slightly. Either that child had absolutely chakra stamina, or…

Kabuto twitched slightly at Alona. He pushed his circular spectacles up the bridge of his nose with his right index finger, "You still are annoying. It would have been wiser to stay down." At this, the fifteen year old cringed. Her hands had grasped the long wooden flute tightly, but shook due to her constant quivering. He really thought Alona would have acquiesced defeat when she keeled over. Nervously, but adamant, she brought the blow hole to her lips, working away at a tune. The song had rung in Kabuto's ear melodically, chiming quite loudly. Alona's semblance… her aura, it had changed quite expeditiously. The once kind, shy ambience that shrouded around her had turned more into a determined, glacial one.

This tune, he knew, would drive him insane in mere seconds. It was common knowledge to him that Alona used her flute as a substitute for hand seals. These tunes that she played could do many things. For one, these melodies toyed with one's mind, blocking out their mind to reality. With a single song, she could ferment a person, agitate them, petrify them, or many other things. She could do all this with just a simple song. Kabuto's hand had made their way to his forehead, and he rubbed that area in a perturbed manner. His mind had already been playing tricks on him. But somehow, maybe, just maybe, if he tried hard to let himself grasp reality, he could pull himself out of this reverie. It pained him, the things he was seeing. Alona knew. That one time her mother had been sick and Kabuto's dad came over to help had made its way into her mind speedily.

She knew, oh, she knew, that this would torment Kabuto to her intention.

And so, her fingers continued fastidiously glide across the tune holes. (A/N: At least I think that's what they're called. I play the viola, so I have no idea.) The waved single hair strand had cascade lightly onto her forehead as the wind built up just a bit. This rubicund lock had tickled her forehead, almost persuading her to stop executing the melody, but she obstreperously shrugged the tingling sensations off. Sakura watched, enthralled by the scene. She had helped Ino out a bit, using some simple medical jutsus. Shikamaru had reported to Nanji, telling her about Naruto. They'd have to get him later.

… Niraku didn't have time to complete her thoughts. As if on cue, huge crimson colored fireballs with an orange hue hit her, sweltering her skin. A blackened spot appeared in her cheek from where the flames had collided with her skin. Part of honey-colored hair had been singed, and this caused her teeth to grit as she seethed with enmity. The woman lifted her right hand onto her cheek, wincing slightly as her fingers touched the skin. She was about to remove the hand, until her body shot painful paroxysms through her body, paralyzing her. Niraku blinked in surprise, then realized that a senbon had lodged its way in a non-lethal puncture point. The kid threw that, She noted mentally, the tremors that were sent up her body martyring Niraku greatly. The sky had taken on a quite dark shade now, voluminous storm-clouds crowding themselves in the once cerulean atmosphere. (A/N: … I… think that works. I'm not sure. Its 3:31 AM, I'm not sure if it works, and I don't want to check.)

A roaring noise filled the ninjas' ears, indicating a storm was initiating the beginning stages. This thunder that had started was similar to that of when a timpani hit a really low note in a ballroom, echoing the sound through the room yet keeping the original loudness audible. Indeed, this had hurt the Genins' ears. But that was better than getting killed. A light drizzle had begun, droplets of clear liquid grazing Sasuke's, Zeo's, and Mitsarugi's cheeks. Their hair had gotten slightly limp now from the rainfall. The muscular hunter-nin had still been incapacitated, her body still defying offering the ability for her to move. This light rain that had once cooled her burns down had gone into a quite fiercer stage, the water particles forcefully dropping down in a multitude. This no longer helped her skin, it hurt it. And it wasn't long before streaks of lightning had marked their origin in the caliginous sky.

"Otousan, hokaninanika maro iriyou?"

An eleven year old boy had stood next to a tall man, clutching a medical kit in his hands. His silver hair wasn't long; it could only make a small ponytail in the back. The boy's circular glasses rested on the bridge of his nose, the huge circular shape mixing its characteristics into his face quite oddly. The man looked down, "No, Kabuto. Elana will be fine, now." His son beamed up at his adoptive-father respectfully, then averted his gaze towards a petite six-year old girl whom had been waiting ever-so patiently at the front of her mother's bedroom door. "Anou… Doushita motte okaasan?" Kabuto, ever cheerful, smiled at the girl warmly. "Your mom had a cold. She's fine, Alona! Father fixed her up!"

Alona flashed a smile at Kabuto and his father, then proceeded over to her mother, using a wet cloth to wet her forehead. Kabuto's father nudged his son in the shoulder, and they took their leave, leaving a note by the front door to give Alona specific instructions with what to do for her mother. As soon as they had walked out though, a storm of shuriken flew at them. And by a stroke of dumb luck, the metallic weaponry had all hit young Yakushi Kabuto's adoptive father.

Her melody forever playing, Kabuto clutched his forehead as the painful memory continued to replay over and over in his head. Each time it replayed itself, though, the visualization got blurry, similar to that of a drunken dream. It had occurred to him, indeed, that he was coming to grips with reality, realizing that this hallucination, this… chimera was just a memory, and nothing more. The last thing Yakushi Kabuto needed was a repeated horror scarred in his life. Alona had noticed Kabuto awakening from the genjutsu. In truth, she couldn't redo the jutsu now, or keep his mind occupied much longer. She had, though, noticed a storm building up, so obviously Zeo had come to her rescue by starting a storm.

By now, the Genins' were saturated. Their clothes were now darkened in color; the garments have increased in weight now from absorbing the clear liquid. She had been hit by the lightning. All three of them had scene it, too. The electrical discharge made contact with her, scorching her skin and piercing her painfully. She had let out a scream, too. They had walked over to her, examining her body thoroughly after she fell off the roof. The flesh was darkened. No, not just darkened. Black. Her hand had twitched slightly for a little while after the impact, but ceased its frantic movements completely after awhile. "She's dead." Mitsarugi exclaimed mundanely, getting herself out of her kneeling position. Sasuke had been leaning against the building Niraku once sat upon the roof on, his face emotionless.

"One less person to worry about." The raven haired Uchiha muttered, wiping off the remainder of water-droplets off his forehead with the back of his hand. Zeo had died the storm down, her gaze averted away from the straw-haired woman. "Her body is quite… deformed." The eleven year old leaf kunoichi said laconically, turning towards the east gate barrier wall. Zeo had already begun to make her way over to the hurt Genin silently. Sasuke and Mitsa followed closely behind, leaving Niraku's corpse lying on the ground.

Kabuto had come to grips, but upon seeing that Niraku had been killed… he panicked. Well, only slightly. With a simple cavort into the air, he was off. Nanji had made her way over to the Genin, Shikamaru power-walking over to Zeo hurriedly. He scanned over her quickly, then turned to Naruto, who was being lugged over the auburn-haired sensei. Ino had been making her way behind Nanji with Sakura's help. She didn't flail her arms angrily or protest defiantly when Sakura offered to help. Her body ached, and she needed help getting back to Konoha, anyway. "Naruto might not be able to move for awhile. Sakura, I'm sure you hold him back in training? I know he won't like hearing that he can't train with you all for awhile." The salmon haired ninja bobbed her head in agreement. Nanji had used a special Jounin technique to teleport the throng back to Konoha; walking the way back would be living hell.
"…"

"…. C'mon! You afraid, Sandy-boy?" This voice belonged to the forever-hyper Momochi Delana, Konoha's newest registered ninja. Temari leaned on her behemothic fan impassively, "It's not that he's afraid to fight you, Delana. I just don't think he wants to waste a breath." The brick-haired sand demon followed the conversation along apathetically, his sage green eyes shifting their gaze to whoever fought back with a comment whilst they fought. Delana squinted her eyes in an annoyed manner. "Maybe so. But whatever, I still want to fight him."

… Still?

Gaara snickered softly at this girl's antics. He tousled his hair in an amused manner, then went back to watching the fight carefully. Temari had rolled her eyes, "I guess weak dogs bark more often… You do realize you're signing your death wish by challenging Gaara?" Kankuro smirked at this, but his face streaked with grim. This was true. Almost any opponent who faced Gaara got… well, a rather unpleasant fight they had to deal with. The only people who were really considered a challenge for the boy named Sabakuno Gaara were Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Rock Lee. This Momochi Delana was just a gutsy girl who didn't know what she was getting herself into. The charcoal haired kunoichi just tossed her braid over her shoulder. "No I'm not." Twitch, twitch. "My, you're gutsy, aren't you?" Temari grimaced, then fixed a ponytail. Delana grinned and merely shook her head, grinning broadly. "Nope! Just gutsy!" Twitch, and more twitch. Well, you had to love how hyper she was, that was certain.

"You really are an idiot, you know that?" the fifteen year old golden-haired girl asked, her voice slightly irritable. Gaara hadn't twitched once. He simply stepped forward, leered at Temari, then looked at Delana. "I'll fight her." Kankuro and Temari almost had a heart-attack at this. "But, Gaara, you're big sister says no. We're wasting time and energy on this girl if we do that." Our favorite brick-haired sand-nin shook his head impassively, "We still have another day before Tsunade makes her decision. I can do whatever I want in the meanwhile. Besides, I've never considered you as a sibling anyway." Delana grinned genuinely, her inner self jumping for joy. "Alrighty-then!" Her voice rang out happily, causing Gaara to twitch slightly and get an urge to scoot away. "So, when do you want to start, Gaara-kun?" ….Twitch, twitch.

"Right now."

The whole group of Genins were at the hospital. Luckily, a large portion of the group only had slight minor injuries accompanied by extreme chakra depletion, which was easily cured due to the fact that one simply had to rest if chakra percentage was dangerously low. Luckily for them, rest… was what they needed greatly. Ino didn't have as severe damage as Naruto. For her, she got luckily to have been touched in her ankle area, where the ankle would merely get swollen and sting a bit if she walked on it too much. She just needed ice for her bruised face. Naruto, however, was the one who afflicted the most damage. His arm, indeed, was fractured, and his right leg wouldn't be able to sustain severe pressure. Uzumaki Naruto… he was just too stubborn to give up. Everyone should have foresaw the blonde getting injured like so. But Tsunade could fix him up, she assured everybody of that.

Mitsarugi's right arm was fully bandaged yet again, a new set of bandages taking their place on her arm now. She was visiting Nikko, who had the stitches not too long ago. "So, Mits. How was the super-mission?" Nikko had been plagued to lying straight on the bed, the ability to sit up stripped from her list of actions. It wasn't that the stitches would break or anything. She'd just get lots of pain. "It was okay. We killed a lady. Sasuke and I walked straight through a forest without breaks for twelve hours." Nikko's eyes bulged at this. Twelve hours? She couldn't manage ten minutes, dammit! "… You pour soul. Oh, who'd you kill?"

"That hunter-nin lady."

"I bet it was fun." Mitsarugi nodded at that. "Yeah. Let's just say I was happy when I got to use my senbon again. Zeo got most of the fun though. She struck her with lightning." Now, the young Urashima knew she had to mention to Nikko about Kabuto. She was endangering her friend if she didn't. "Nikko, I learned something about Kabuto, he--." A nurse walked into the room at that time, carrying a tray of food. Sasuke had followed behind the short haired nurse, "Mitsa, we're leaving. Visiting hours are almost over. We're having a hard enough time trying to get Sakura out of Rock Lee's room." She nodded to the raven-haired Uchiha, gave a slight wave to Nikko, then walked off out of the room. She WOULD tell Nikko about Yakushi Kabuto later. She'd have to. Otherwise, she'd be endangering her friend to a point in which even SHE got extremely uncomfortable at.

Back in Sound village, 10:00 PM

"So, this is the work of Sasuke-kun, Zeo, and Mitsa-chan?"

A familiar spectacled medical-ninja nodded, pulling a senbon out of Niraku's pale wrist. "Mitsa-chan's finger prints are on this. It's her's." He then pointed to a burn mark on the dead blonde's cheek, "By the way the skin is scorched, she was burned from fire by this. It's common knowledge that Sasuke-kun did that, and singe her hair with a fire jutsu. The burns are too… lightly shaded to have any other cause of damage. The rest was affected by a bolt of lightning. You can easily assume Zeo used her advanced bloodline to her benefit and advantage during this match. It looks like Niraku-san's cause of death was because of major shock, causing her central nervous to shut down. Simply, they played this woman like a fiddle, and carried out a plan quite well." Orochimaru grinned, his snake-like facial structure enlightened by the dim light emitting from the multitude of candles. "She was a great toy, then." Kabuto smirked slightly at that, pushing up his thick spectacles with his right index finger. With a nod, he replied, "Indeed. You picked the right person for them to play with, Orochimaru-sama. I have updated information for you." In a practiced move and a flick of the wrist, three nin-info cards made their way onto the snake Sannin's lap. Curiously, Orochimaru picked up a card.

"Your information appears accurate."

"Isn't it always, Orochimaru-sama?" the silver-haired Genin fought back defensively, eye twitching slightly in agitation. A raspy laugh was the only emotion given as a reply to that, followed along with a twisted smirk. "Of course, Kabuto. You always seem to figure out everything accurately about these rookies." The Yakushi smiled slightly, then adjusted his sound hitai-ate. "Right. Who do you need me to fetch now to lead Sasuke-kun, Mitsa-chan, and Zeo here?" Orochimaru thought about that for a second. His smirk slowly turned into a light frown, then back to his usual toothy grin. Kabuto shuddered at that. "How about that girl Nikko you've taken a liking to?"

"You've got to be kidding me! Nothing penetrates your sand!" Of course, Delana. Weren't you paying attention during the Chuunin exam? You were there. Temari snickered lightly as she watched the hyper-girl's many attempts to destroy Gaara's sand barrier. Of course, she knew that even if Delana managed to get past the sand barrier, she'd have to worry about Gaara's armor of sand, too. This was known clearly as Gaara's absolute defense, and it worked quite effectively. This sand was Sabakuno Gaara's key to victory, basically. Delana had rested her two hands on her knees to support her upper body while she slumped down, panting. It had been countless times that she had tried to break this barrier of sand. Every time, she failed quite miserably.

Throughout the whole match, Gaara simply stood there, arms crossed passively as he watched the kunoichi try to break his defense force. She had thrown kunais, shuriken, rocks… anything she could get her hands on. Even if she managed to so much as dent the sand, though, it would just regenerate itself. Simply put, it was hopeless to even think about someone being able to beat Gaara, really. Gaara was invincible. … And he always would be. Kankuro had sat idly next to Temari, resting his elbows on her huge fan. Temari's blonde hair was resting on her shoulders now. Not too long ago, she had let it down from it getting too limp. Gaara looked at Delana in a bored manner, "…Are you done yet?" Defiantly, the raven haired girl shook her head. Temari rolled her eyes. "Are you that dense?!"

...Maybe.

"I'm not dense… I... I'm… Um... Grr, Gaara, I'm going to figure out how to break this sand barrier… then we'll fight! For real!" Oh, you really have to love her determined stupidity. If you don't, you're weird. Gaara had placed the top back on his gourd. He looked at the panting Delana, smirked lightly, then walked over to his 'siblings'. Temari stood up quickly, "C'mon, Gaara. Let's go back to the ninja quarters. PLEASE. It's hot out here." Kankuro had nodded to that in agreement. Irritably, Gaara replied with a nod. "Yeah. Let's go. I'm looking forward to that fight with you, Delana." And with that, the sand-nin trio walked over to the guest ninja quarters, ever-impatient for Tsunade's decision.

"Huh?! Where am I?" A hyper blonde boy exclaimed quite loudly, blinking at a black haired girl who was fiddling with her two index fingers. This girl, clearly, marked herself as Hyuuga Hinata. "… U-Um... You're in the hospital, Naruto-kun…" Sill ever-confused, Naruto scratched his head.

"…Okay. What happened?"

The pearl-eyed girl gave a slight shrug, a roseate shaded blush making yet another appearance on her pretty face. "…I-I don't know, Naruto-kun… You should ask Sakura-chan when she visits…"

"Yeah. I'll do that." Smiling goofily towards the young Hyuuga, Naruto sat upward, resting his cast for his arm on his knee. "You know, it's past visiting hours. You should leave, Hinata-chan. I don't want you to get in trouble; the nurse is a bitch." He cares… Smiling softly, Hinata nodded, then stood up. "Right, Naruto-kun… I-I'll visit tomorrow… Konbanwa…" And with that, Hinata left the hospital, grinning broadly as he left the girl left the premise.

The following day, yet again, had been boring as usual. Like they always did, then Genins met at the forest clearing. Shikamaru leaned against a tree, Zeo lingering ever close to the boy. Mitsarugi had sat next to Sasuke, and Sakura, finding this as an opportunity to nag Sasuke, so she clung to his right arm while trying constantly to strike up a conversation. Yet again, Kakashi and Gai were there. The silver haired Jounin was reading his Icha Icha Paradise comic, and Gai… well, he constantly tried to follow along. Numerous times, Kakashi had whacked Gai across the side of his head with the pornographic comic.

You'd think he'd get the idea the first or second time around.

Tsunade had made her way to the clearing yet again, her face somewhat grim… yet again. This slightly irked the Genins. What if they had to do another Sound village mission? They… just weren't up to it. The fifty-year old blonde had wiped the grim face off speedily, though, and replaced it with a cheerful expression to enlighten the mood. Gai grinned a flashy smile at Tsunade, and Kakashi simply glanced upward.

"What's their mission for this time, Tsunade-sama?"

Sakura got a bit nervous, but she had sort of figured that Tsunade wouldn't send them on a risky mission again. Although Nanji had carried out her job as a sensei quite well, they needed more than her to be there. Kakashi wouldn't be able to come, due to fear of being recognized, and he didn't need that. The Genins, however, needed him to be able to do anything risky such as that. Had they successfully completed that mission, it would have made a nice little mark on their mission records. Tsunade clasped her Hokage necklace, in dismay a bit. "…Okay. Although the last mission didn't go so well, but I think you all should be able to complete this mission successfully, and return with few major injuries." Zeo had locked her gaze on Tsunade. She was being a bit… risky lately. She'd have to figure out why. Maybe she was just uptight about something. "Now, this mission… well, it won't be completely easy. At about midnight last night, a ninja known as Nikko was kidnapped. She was just snatched out of her hospital bed. The security cameras had caught the kidnapper in action… I'm sure you all remember Yakushi Kabuto from the Chuunin exam. "

At this, Mitsarugi's fists clenched.

Sasuke placed a hand over the chestnut-haired kunoichi's right fist. They didn't need her getting inflamed right now; she had to save it for when they were on the rescue mission. Shikamaru let out a, "How troublesome…", only to be flicked in the head by the snow-haired ex-Mist nin. He grunted, then nodded his head. Tsunade looked around for any objections, then upon finding none, she nodded her head. "You are dismissed. Good luck."

A/N: … I… really have to stop making these icky chapters. Really. I do. But yay! The Naruto/Hinata coupling is starting to form! I'm with that relationship all the way, so I'm quite happy that I've decided to bring it into the story now! Um… I guess this is another long chapter, asides the battle nothing really happened… although I said this was an icky chapter, this is… certainly one of my favorite chapters, I guess.

Preview of the next Chapter: "I trusted you?"

"That you did." Kabuto pushed up his spectacles, then pushed up the fourteen-year olds also. She flinched slightly, taking the silver-haired medical-ninja by surprise a bit. "Don't take this too personally. If I wasn't working for Orochimaru, this wouldn't be happening." Nikko thought about that slightly for a second. Her brows furrowed as she went into deep thought, processing what was happening through her head over and over again. He dirt-blonde hair rested on her shoulders and she hung her head, still quite upset that KABUTO was the one who had kidnapped her. Twitching slightly, Kabuto looked over, "…Hey, I'm basically saying I'm sorry, okay?"

"You say you're sorry. It doesn't mean that you actually mean it, you bastard."

Standing in the doorway of the main office in Sound village, where Konoha's assigned ninjas. Indeed, they were all in a ready position, ready to fight.