CHAPTER 2

After another hour of boring walking and Ramen debate, the sun began to set. Kakashi looked over at the group. "The sun's going down, let's set up camp 'til morning" Everyone sighed, relieved and fell to the ground, not able to get up. Kakashi sighed. "Ok fine, take five, then set up camp..."

"Uhhhhh..." Was the common response.

After a few mnutes, everyone was assigned duties. Sakura and Chris were sent out to get firewood, not finding any sticks on the ground, Chris just chopped up a few trees while Sakura punched them down. Over the course of these few days, Chris decided he liked his sword... Marissa happily accepted the task of making a campfire and "accidentally" almost lit Parker on fire. Devin was sent to make a perimeter. Parker and Naruto went off to fish for food in a nearby creek. Choosing to dive into the creek and pull out the fish with bare hands. They came back with a large bucket of fish. Everyone cooked and ate their fish voraciously and went to sleep in some tents they managed to pitch up.

Marissa woke up in her sleeping bag, for some reason, it was a little tight, Marissa couldn't move at all. She looked around to see that she was in a cacoon...on a big ass spider web... Marissa instantly screamed, her arachnaphobia was quite serious. She tried to burn the whole thing down to no avail. She felt her heart jumnp as she felt the web move... She slowly turned her head to see a gigantic 20 foot spider baring its fangs, slowly making its approach... As it stood right over her, Marissa screamed...

Parker and Chris stood outside as Marissa writhed and screamed in her tent. Parker looked at Chris and laughed. "You were right Chris, Genjutsu is fun."

In the morning, after Parker finished bandaging his wounds that Marissa gave him(even though it was Chris' genjutsu...), everyone was ready to go. The group headed out after Parker and Naruto handed out Ramen to everyone(of course). Gai led everyone down a path with another embarassing pose, Lee, sadly, copied him...Parker limped down talking to Marissa.

"So, Marissa...why did you go hurt me? Chris made the jutsu, I was an inno...a bystander..." Marissa looked at Parker with a big smile on her face.

"Because you're Parker!" Parker sighed. And bowed his head.

"Of course..." He turned to see Naruto trying to take his wallet, Naruto quickly put it away and pretended to give Parker a sympathetic pat on the back, causing Parker to land on his bad leg and fall over...Not noticing, Devin stepped on him. "...ow..." Eventually Shikamaru was nice enough to pull him out of the ground, but got lazy and dropped him.

"Eh, walk it off." Parker looked up as tears rolled down his face.

"I...can't, that's the problem..."

Eventually Parker was able to get up and keep walking, avoiding Chris' trip attempts. 'What good friends,' Parker thought.

Eventually they made it to Sound Country. For a new country, it was ginormous!

"HOLY CRAP!" Devin spoke everyone's thoughts. The place was even bigger than Konoha, and it looked cooler too. The sky was a vibrant azure, not a cloud in the sky, just a bright yellow sun. The gates looked like a city in the future with pure chrome doors...it looked kinda creepy, but cool. At the gate, the group was instantly surrounded by sound ANBU. Kakashi stepped forward and pulled out a few papers. One ANBU took them, looked them over, and then signaled to open the gate. The gate slowly opened reveling the new country to be explored. Somewhere beyond these gates was Sasuke and Orochimaru. And it was their job to find them.

They entered the city and soon found a small, rickity inn to stay at. Sakura looked unhappy. "What? We life saving ninja are staying in a crappy place like this?" Kakashi looked at her with his usual lazy stare.

"We have to keep a low profile, so have to stay at lower class inn's...sorry." Sakura mumbled something but accepted it. Marissa was truly crushed. Everyone was forced to share rooms which were pretty small to begin with, and it was Marissa, small crappy hotels weren't her thing...oh well. They decided that it'd be best to just spend the rest of the day at the inn, since it was only an hour before sunset. They all miraculously were able to get their own rooms, and everyone was glad, because they didn't want to shower, they could do that in the morning, they wanted sleep...and sleep they did.

Parker woke up, dazed, confused, with a knife to his throat...wait, what? Parker sent electricity though the knife just in the knick of time. He stunned the atacker, whom he couldn't see in the darkness, and jumped out of bed, wearing nothing but a pair of sweat pants, and moved into a defensive position. The figure just stood there, unattentive, ignoring Parker, still staring on the bed where he once was, knife hovering a few inches on top of it. The figure finally turned to notice the confused boy and took action. The figure charged Parker, who by now had charged as much electricity in his right hand as he could, readying himself. Just as the figure pulled his arm back to stab with the knife, Marissa burst through the door and kicked Parker's attacker out the window. She seemed to ignore Parker, she ran to the window and leaned out.

"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR WAKING ME UP PARKER!" Parker stifled a laugh, Marissa probably just saved his life in an attempt to end it.

"Umm...Marissa?" Marissa turned wide-eyed to see Parker standing there. She looked out the window again to see the figure unconscious on the ground, right where she left it. She turned to Parker again, looking confused.

"So...who was that?" She pointed out the windo over her shoulder with her thumb. Parker shrugged.

"No idea, but when i woke up, he had a knife to my throat, so...you basically saved my ass...thanks." She grew a huge grin from ear to ear.

"HA! I SAVED YOUR LIFE! You owe me one!" Marissa was now poking Parker between giggles. Parker rolled his eyes.

"Come on, we should wake the others. And stop poking me!"

"NEVAH!"

"He was right here!" Marissa yelled pointing to a pile of garbage. Kakashi sighed.

"Great, he got away. We could've interrogated, he was probably working for Orochimaru, and you let him get away." Marissa sulked.

"Hey, don't blame her, it was let him get away, or let him kill me. We can find him again, but we can't bring me back from the dead...so don't get mad at her." Parker said. Marissa perked up again.

"Right, sorry" Kakashi said, turning to Marissa. "Anyway, he'll probably be back, until then, let's move out, the lair is pretty far from here, so we have some walking to do."

"Great..."

Devin dragged his feet as the group continued to trudge along. They'd been walking for 3 hours, and were ready to stop. They did stop, but not to rest. A tall man with pale white hair sttod there in the middle of the road. He wore a long, light blue cloak and white pants. He had very tan skin and large black rings around his eyes. "I've been expecting you..." The group shivered at the sound of his voice. It was the voice of a man who takes joy in killing others.

Kakashi narrowed his eye. "So, I take it you're working for Orochimaru?" The man looked at him with the same emotionless face.

"You could say that, we have the same goal, but we have never met. I simply wish to avenge my brother." Everyone looked at him, curious. "Kimimaro." Naruto perked up at the name, recognizing it instantly. He was about to say something when the man spoke up again. "I also have some friends who would like revenge as well..."

Six shinobi jumped out of what seemed to be nowhere and attacked the group. Everyone was occupied fighting except for Devin, Marissa, Parker, Chris, and Kimimaro's brother. Everyone but Marissa knew that he probably had the same abilities as Kimimaro. Not surprisingly, Marissa barged past her friends and faced the man.

"Umm...Marissa? That's not a very good idea..." Chris gently pointed out.

"Why not?" She looked at the man as he moved his shoulder with a few loud cracking sounds. He removed his cloak as a bone popped through the skin of his shouler, he grabbed it and pulled it out. Marissa fell to the floor in a fetal position screaming.

"That would be the main reason..." Replied Parker.

"I got her." Devin said as he dragged her off the battlegrounds. Parker and Chris turned to their opponent.

"Right, we'll handle this." Chris said. The man looked at them and smiled slightly.

"Well, at least this will be more of a challenge than the stupid girl." Chris and Parker soon found themselves flying through the air as Marissa barged between them, fire, literally, in her eyes. They looked back to see Devin halfway underground, his legs sticking out, flailing violently. They looked back at Marissa.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY? I'LL BURN YOUR ASHES!" The man ignored this and charged her with his bone in hand. Marissa drew a really cool dagger out of her boots and blocked his attack, returning it with a swift kick to the chest, sending the man back. He popped out his second shoulder and charged her again. This time, he tried to slash at her legs and head at the same time. She lifted one leg and stepped on one bone while jumping/ducking to avoid the second. She dodged both attacks...or so she thought. She stared in horror as a small chunk of her hair fell to the ground. She emotionally recooperated and punched him in the face, sending him flying, but he was able to land on his feet. He looked up at her angry, as he wiped blood away from his mouth.

Marissa looked at him in a way that made all who saw it, mainly Chris, Parker, and Devin (who had been pried out of the ground by now), die a little inside. She pulled off her scroll and opned it. She bit her thumb and swiped it across the scroll, a bright firey aura surrounded her hand. She grabbed her dagger and the fire soon swept to that, engulfing it in flames. The blade became red as fire rose from the blade. She ran at him and stabbed at his head. He dodged to the right, but was surprised to see the flames snake off and surround him. He jumped just in time as the flames constricted where he just was. Marissa was way ahead of him though. She was now directly behind him. She stabbed at his back, he dodged again. The flames snaked off again. It looked as if two snakes were chasing after him. He landed and ran away, he turned to see only one snake chasing him. He soon found out where the other was as it burst out from underground and wrapped around his ankle, burning everything it touched. He froze and the other snake was soon sorrounding him, making a ring around him. The ring began to grow until it was as tall as he was. The ring then closed. A scream was heard, but when the flames cleared, there was nothing but ash and a single bone...

The flames disappeared from her dagger and she put it back in it's holster. She then jumped into the air repeatedly as Kakashi killed the last of the other ninja. "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

Her three friends laughed. "That was so freakin' cool...man, I wish I could do that..." Parker said. Marissa walked back over to the group. She looked at Parker.

"That's two you owe me."