Note: In order not to get completely confused by this chapter, you need at least some knowledge of the jutsus used by the senior Ino-Shika-Cho team.
Chapter 5: Shikaku - Questions
They were definitely medical-nins. In between their rags and scruffy armor, there were red insignias, bandages, scalpels and, on at least one of them, a stethoscope. The tallest one stepped closer.
"So, what's it gonna be grandpa? Death or directions?" He winked at Shikaku. Finally, Shikaku thought. Three. Two. One.
The medical-nin spun around and kicked one of his teammates in the chin so hard it snapped and sent teeth flying. In that same motion, he drew his kunai and stabbed his best friend through the right lung. As the two men hit the ground, bleeding and gargling, he was already running into the forest, leaving the rest of his team stunned.
Nara Shikaku was also running. To his left, Akimichi Chouza was jumping from limb to limb, looking back for pursuers. In front of him, Yamanaka Inoichi ran, their movements identical. Ten more minutes, Shikaku reckoned, and they would have the time they needed.
"Ok! Chouza! Let's stop." He said, twelve minutes later.
"What? Already? They'll catch up to us in no time!"
"No, they won't. They're medical-nins, they'll try and save their teammates before coming after us."
Stopping at a clearing to wait for their new friend, Shikaku tried to clear his head. What the hell was that all about? Seven apparently unaffiliated medical-nins threatening them for directions to Konoha in the middle of nowhere? It didn't make any sense. Who'd ever heard of rouge medical-nins anyway (apart from, well, Hokage-sama)? But ganging up and getting all in your face for bearing the leaf insignia? They looked pretty young and self-taught, so Shikaku figured his team would probably have been able to take them on, but he wasn't aboutto kill a bunch of doctors in the middle of a mission without getting some answers first. Their new friend was going to give them those answers. The treacherous medical-nin stepped out of the forest, his right arm still bloody from the stabbing.
"That as pretty rough, Inoichi."
"Had to give'em something to work with, didn't I? You can drop me now."
Shikaku's shadow retreated from Inoichi's soulless body, making it slump to the ground. The medical nin's body caught the handcuffs Shikaku threw him.
"Empty his pockets and cuff him to a tree"
"Oki-doke"
Inoichi searched through the pockets of the possessed body and dropped whatever he found on the ground.
"Shuriken, exploding notes, gauss, pain killers…this guy is packed up for a battle! A photograph, soldier pills…and that's it."
As Inoichi handcuffed "himself" around a slender tree, Chouza picked up the tiny photograph and looked at it. His eyebrows jumped.
"Say, Inoichi, don't we know this guy?"
"What? Show me." Neatly restrained now, Inoichi turned his head around as Chouza held out the picture.
"Can't be him. Can it?"
"Sure looks like him. Besides, what other grown man would wear that t-shirt?"
"If it's him, he's aged."
"About damn time."
Shikaku walked over. He had a pretty good idea who his teammates were talking about.
"Give it here."
Chouza handed him the picture. It was taken in a photo booth, showing a pretty girl, happily staving off the advances of a red-headed man who was trying to kiss her. They looked quite in love, and that was him, all right.
"It is." Shikaku said.
"Well I'll be damned" Chouza laughed.
What did this mean? Why would…
Shikaku's thoughts were interrupted by trouble.
"Traitor!" a female medical-nin shouted from a nearby tree. A small cloud of shuriken came flying towards them. That was a pretty sophisticated throwing technique, no way to deflect them all by now. Shikaku jumped clear, screaming:"Get out Inoichi!"
Their bound captive regained control over his body just in time to feel the hits of seven shuriken.
Inoichi's body jerked back to life, disoriented.
"What the fuck?" he yelled and got to his feet. Chouza was already twenty feet tall, smashing the tree in which the shuriken girl had been to splinters. She was nowhere to be found. Their hostage was quite dead.
"They know our position", Shikaku said, "Let's go."
Their movements made a blur of the forest. That was too close. If that girl hadn't screamed like an idiot, Inoichi would be dead now. If they sent out an assassin to kill all traitors immediately, even with their friends needing medical attention ASAP, that meant they were serious about whatever they were doing. But just what were they doing? Why did they need to get to Konoha? And why the hell was one of them carrying a picture of some girl being kissed by Gekkou Tegata?
Authors comments: Another short one, but the first strictlynon-romance one. The next one will be longer, and clear things up a little more. Maybe.