A/N: Yay, here's chapter 12. This was probably the hardest one to write so far (so it will likely be edited at some point in the future). Anyway...Read & Review (appreciate it!)

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CHAPTER 12

"MISSING PIECES"

"…Fell down…over cliff…both…fell …"

Ren's words tore at the two Konoha Chuunin, who looked at one another, unsure of what to say. As Ren drifted back into unconsciousness, a deathly silence consumed the catastrophic site of the plateau remains. The large hawk that had delivered Ren and the girl safely to the ground suddenly flapped its wings, stirring up a bit of dust and debris as it vanished within a giant puff of smoke. As the cloud slowly dissipated, Kaori found herself rising to her feet. Before either she or Kintarou realized it, she had begun to sprint across the crumbled fragments of rock, heading towards the edge of the gorge. She squinted as the sun shone almost directly into her eyes, illuminating the tight wrinkles around her lips from the fretful expression on her face. A large shadow quickly intercepted her halfway.

"Kaori-san."

"Let me go!" she shouted. "Takeo-kun needs medical attention…I have to help him…"

She struggled mightily to free herself from Kintarou's hold, but it was pointless.

"Kaori-san," Kintarou firmly repeated. "You need to calm down and think rationally."

"Don't tell me to calm down, Kintarou-kun," Kaori replied harshly. "I have to—"

"You have to act like the medical specialist you are!" Kintarou continued, ignoring her thrashing.

Kaori stopped her movements long enough for Kintarou to feel safe in releasing her.

"Aren't medical specialists trained to prioritize the wounded?" Kintarou soberly asked her.

"Y-Yes," Kaori hesitantly nodded.

"And in this situation, what should you do?"

Kaori sadly glanced at him for a moment before turning back towards Ren and the girl lying on the ground.

"Stabilize those within reach," Kaori stoically answered.

"Right," Kintarou replied. "Our mission is to bring Ren-san back. He takes priority over all of us…regardless of how hard that may be. I know it's difficult, but this is how it has to be. ANBU exist to serve Konoha…and saving Ren-san will accomplish that purpose…"

"But…" Kaori started, before giving in and turning.

Kintarou grimaced at the mournful look on Kaori's face as she stared behind him, towards the canyon. Soon though, she began walking away and he quickly followed her back to where Ren and the girl were lying. Spreading her hands over the silver-haired old man as she knelt down, Kaori hurriedly examined him.

"Dislocated shoulder…a fracture of his radius…dehydration…slight concussion…" Kaori stated as she went. "Nothing life-threatening."

"Good. What about the girl?"

Kaori moved her hands over to the young woman's slender frame. Kintarou watched as Kaori quickly examined her, too.

"Apart from a few scratches and bruises to her face and arms, she appears to be stable," Kaori informed him. "She likely has a low-grade concussion as well."

"I see," Kintarou replied. "Good. I'm glad both of them are not in too serious of a condition."

"Right," Kaori nodded as she hopped to her feet. "Let's go find Takeo-kun."

"No," Kintarou quickly responded.

"What do you mean?" Kaori shot back.

"Kaori-san, you need to finish treating Ren-san and the girl," Kintarou said. "If Noppo did fall…we both know that the odds of finding him are very small."

"That doesn't mean we should just forget about him and leave him down there to die," Kaori shouted back at him.

"If he isn't already dead," Kintarou calmly replied.

Kaori's small fist shot straight at his nose. Kintarou quickly caught the punch and gently lowered her hand.

"I'm sorry, Kaori-san," Kintarou apologized. "But as team leader it is my duty to think of the mission and of what is best for its success. Right now, the odds of him being alive after a fall like that are very low. If we send you down to find him, we risk you possibly getting injured and thus losing our only medical specialist. I'm sorry, Kaori-san, but I cannot allow you to endanger yourself."

"Kintarou-kun, I still—"

"Which is why I will go down to search for Takeo," Kintarou finished.

Kaori paused and shook her head. "Then both of us should go. We're a team."

"And as team leader, I'm ordering you to stay behind and heal these two," Kintarou immediately responded, noticing the depression in Kaori's normally bright blue eyes. "Kaori-san, we don't know who or what caused this destruction, but it would be safe to assume that we do not want to meet them as we are. As soon as Ren-san and she are healed, we will take them back to Ren's house, grab our stuff, and head straight for Konoha."

"And what about—"

"If I find anything, I will immediately come and get you," Kintarou assured her.

The two stared at one another before Kaori eventually nodded.

"Good," Kintarou said. "I shall return soon."

As Kaori quickly turned back to her two patients, Kintarou spun and carefully dashed across the rubble towards the edge of the gorge. He stopped a few inches from it, kneeling down to one knee and cautiously leaning his head over the ledge. He frowned, scratching at the black whiskers covering his chin. In their haste to reach the crumbling plateau, he and Kaori had forgotten to bring the pack with all of their equipment. Though as he continued gazing into the gorge, Kintarou realized that any length of rope wouldn't be of much use anyway. Even after staring down into the shadow-filled canyon for several minutes, he could not see the bottom.

Furrowing his brow as he stood, Kintarou tried to think of a way to reach it other than leaping to his death. He wasn't sure he had enough chakra left for any useful ninjutsu techniques. Which meant that as much as he didn't want to, he would have to climb down the hard way. He only hoped his strength would hold up. Briefly glancing back at Kaori, Kintarou paused, watching the green-tinted chakra surround her hands as she worked over Ren's shoulder. With a short quick sigh, Kintarou withdrew a pair of kunai from his pouch and clutched them tightly. He fidgeted with the bandaging wrapped around his large paws, fitting the kunai handles between a few layers to secure the blades in his grasp. He slowly stepped to the edge, allowing his toes to hang over slightly. He gritted his teeth and allowed his body to lean forward, until his weight eventually carried him headfirst into the large chasm.

The gust of air pushing up into his face as he fell left his eyes teary. But Kintarou stayed focused and after he had fallen some fifty feet, he forcibly pounded both hands into the flat rock face, piercing the canyon side with the kunai gripped in his hands. The sharp metal blades tore through the hard brittle rock, digging deeper and deeper into the wall. Kintarou's momentum slowed; his body was forced to flip, his legs and feet somersaulting over. Adjusting his hands slightly, Kintarou clasped each kunai tightly as his back slammed into the canyon side. He wobbled slightly as he came to a stop, facing out into the gorge as he hung nearly a hundred feet below the top. Gathering himself again, Kintarou lifted his legs and pressed his feet against the rock behind him. He focused his energy and violently propelled himself off of the rock face, leaping with his hands outstretched towards the other side. He fell at least another fifty or sixty feet before coming in contact with the opposite wall. Again, he plunged each kunai into the solid rock face, slowing his descent towards the bottom. When he came to a stop, he kicked his feet off of the canyon side again and leapt back towards the first wall, gradually zigzagging his way down.

A few hundred feet above him, Kaori feverishly continued to work on the unconscious pair lying on the ground. She had seen Kintarou fall headfirst into the deep crevice, but managed to hold herself from rushing up to the edge to make sure he was safe. She had to have faith that Kintarou knew what he was doing. She believed in her teammates. Both of them. Takeo was fine, she told herself. Kintarou would find him at the bottom. The two of them would argue about Takeo rushing into something again, not listening to Kintarou's words of advice. They would climb back up, Kintarou grinning and Takeo calmly shaking his head. Then they would all go back home together, where they would continue their careers as ANBU agents. Kaori repeated this again and again as she finished healing Ren's injuries, quickly moving to work on the girl lying beside him. She knew everything would be okay.

"Okay…"

Kintarou mumbled that word over and over as he balanced atop a large fragment of the broken plateau, one of many pieces that had tumbled into the gorge. The kunai he still held tightly in his hands showed how rough his trip down had been; the once sharp and brilliant blades were now dulled and even chipped in a few places along the edge. Kintarou shifted his eyes upwards, gazing at the distant cracks of sunlight that shone down into the otherwise dark canyon. It had taken nearly a dozen back-and-forth bounces off of the walls to finally drop far enough into the gorge to see the bottom. Now that he was here, Kintarou was taking a moment to rest as he surveyed the wreckage around him.

"Noppo!" he yelled out, his voice echoing off of the smooth canyon walls.

As his eyes adjusted to the dimness within the chasm, Kintarou quickly began losing what little hope he had left to hold on to. Piled beneath his feet, shattered fragments of the plateau littered the canyon bottom in every direction. He wasn't sure it was even accurate to say he'd reached the bottom anymore; the rock and debris underneath him was easily twenty feet deep. However, small breaks between several of the larger slabs of stone revealed a few scattered pockets of empty space. The small chance that Takeo was caught in one of these safety bubbles was all Kintarou needed.

"Noppo!" he shouted. "Takeo!"

Kintarou called out again and again, but still heard only the reply of his own echo. Without thinking, he dove down towards the small fragment of rock nearest to him. He hurriedly untangled the kunai handles from the bandaging around his hands and stuffed them back into his pouch, and then placed his hands underneath the heavy chunk of rock. With a loud roar, he dug his feet into the plateau pieces underneath him and lifted the stone fragment up and tossed it a few feet to the side. He scanned the tiny hollow that was beneath it; finding nothing, he hastily began burrowing down through the dirt and smaller bits of rock. Deeper and deeper he tunneled. Kintarou's exposed fingers quickly became raw and swollen, but he ignored the discomfort, focusing solely on finding some sign of his missing teammate. After ten minutes of clawing through the debris, Kintarou left the tiny crater he'd made and moved on to another fragment nearby. Once it had been tossed aside, he continued digging. Twenty minutes later, he moved on to a third spot. An hour later, his hands scraped and sore, Kintarou stood back up and glared angrily at the mountain of broken bits of the plateau still beneath him. At the rate he was going, all he'd accomplish is undermining any stability the piled up stone fragments had.

A look of defeat darkened his eyes as he turned his head left and right over the long mound of stone and dirt. Frustration filling every pore in his large body, Kintarou violently kicked at the tiny hill of crumbled rock and sand beneath his feet. He suppressed a shout and snapped his sandaled foot back immediately, feeling a sharp pain as his toes impacted something buried within it. Quickly reaching a hand down, he pulled a curved wooden spear out from the rubble. Several splinters decorated the thick middle portion, just above a textured groove that had obviously been broken from a larger piece. Kintarou sulked as he hesitantly looked at the loose bit of bowstring dangling from the narrower pointed end.

"His bow," Kintarou sighed heavily.

Takeo's broken weapon in hand, Kintarou slid the fractured piece between his belt and his pants, and then moved it around behind his back. He quickly renewed his search among the wreckage with an even greater sense of urgency. He frantically scoured the surrounding area, hoping his teammate was nearby. Tossing several large chunks of rock away, Kintarou caught a glimpse of something glimmering faintly within the tight gap between two enormous hunks of stone. He leapt immediately towards the object, never taking his eye off of the pale bit of light reflecting off of it. Squeezing his thick muscular arm inside the narrow crack of space, Kintarou blindly moved his hand about until he felt his fingers brush against it. Cool and smooth to the touch, Kintarou maneuvered his hand around the metallic object, feeling a bit of fabric surrounding it. He carefully moved his arm back, but found it wouldn't budge more than a few inches. Closing his left eye, he peered through the small sliver of space with his right eye. His head instantly shot back as he recklessly began pounding at the two giant pieces of rock imprisoning the object. Realizing the futility of this, he pressed his free hand against the side of one of the large slabs and yanked his arm out from the crack, still instinctively clutching the metal piece in his hand. A muffled tearing sound soon gave way to a loud thud as Kintarou stumbled back, landing hardly on a flat piece of stone.

He braced his free hand against its rough surface and pushed himself up. Suddenly, he felt the pile of rocks and debris beneath him giving way. He swiftly hopped to his feet as the fragments began caving in. Soon, the entire area began trembling, as the plateau remains started shifting and sinking down. In a flash, Kintarou raced back to the two large chunks of rock. He glanced down at the object that had broken free, tightening his grip around it and the torn leather strap attached to one end. With every bit of strength he had, Kintarou wedged his hands between the two hefty slabs of stone and tried desperately to pull them apart. His face reddened and his jaw tightened as every muscle in his body flexed; his stifled grunts and steadily rising voice was soon drowned out as the fragments of rock and earth behind him began collapsing in. The wave of sinking stone and sand quickly approached Kintarou, who could not separate the giant boulders. He gazed miserably at the shadowed form trapped within the pocket of space before he turned his glassy eyes up. Moments before the rubble beneath him fell, compacting deeper into the canyon bottom, Kintarou jumped up. A worn kunai in his hand, he bounced off of the top of one of the large rock slabs, barely avoiding slipping back down, and drove the blade into the surface of the canyon wall.

The sounds faintly emanating from down in the gorge did nothing to ease Kaori's nerves. She had worked quickly to heal Ren's injuries and to make sure that he and the girl were safe for travel. But now, having finished everything that she could do for them, the kunoichi was left with little else to do but sit and anxiously wait for her teammates' return. Habitually fidgeting with her hands, Kaori helplessly gazed out over the field of plateau fragments towards the ledge where Kintarou had fallen. The calloused hand that briefly touched her arm made her jump back.

"Kaori-san…"

Ren's eyes were only half open, but the fact that he was stirring made Kaori feel slightly better.

"You should keep resting, Ren-san," Kaori said, forcing a smile.

Ren didn't reply, instead rolling his head over to face the girl beside him.

"Jana…she okay…" Ren barely whispered.

Kaori placed a comforting hand on top of the old man's shoulder as he gently sat himself up.

"She should be fine," Kaori assured him. "Do you remember what happened?"

Ren paused as he searched his memory. "There were others at the top…other ninja…two in black robes attacked and…Takeo-san did something and called that large bird. Smoke and dust made it hard to see but…Takeo-san warned me to move and then…then the ground started shaking. I cut the ropes on Nanami and then…I saw those two black robes charging right at us. Takeo-san moved in front of us, but they…they tried to grab Nanami…Takeo-san stopped them. Then after this loud explosion nearby, the ground really started shaking and then it started splitting apart. I yelled to Takeo-san, but he had Nanami in his arms trying to bring her back when… when the ground underneath him broke apart and they…fell…I jumped up to get them but then…I think something hit me…I can't remember…"

He tried to speak again, but Ren found his body still aching and slow to respond.

"W-What about…Nanami and Tak—"

"I need you to rest," Kaori quickly cut him off. "Please lay back down."

"Kaori-san…did…"

Ren's weakened voice faded as he noticed her hopeful eyes staring at the same spot along the canyon's edge. Her gaze never wavered from that point, not even when a large bandaged hand rose from the edge a few feet away. Only after a spiky head of black hair emerged did Kaori find the energy to move. Leaping to her feet, she ignored Ren, racing towards Kintarou as he gingerly lifted himself up and back onto flat solid ground. Kaori began to smile as she ran, still caught up in her own illusions of her team's happy reunion. But that warm grin disappeared the moment she saw the bleak expression on Kintarou's face.

"Kintarou-kun…"

Kintarou couldn't find the right words to say. He couldn't find anything to say. He simply shook his head.

"Wh-What happened…" Kaori started before her voice left her.

"Kaori-san…" Kintarou frowned regretfully.

Removing the piece of Takeo's bow from behind his back, Kintarou held it out for Kaori to see. When she didn't respond, he slowly withdrew the other object he'd retrieved from his pouch. Kaori's trembling hands reached out and accepted it, cradling the familiar item in her open palms. The late afternoon sun glistened softly off of the reflective surface of the rectangular metal plate, illuminating the scratches surrounding he intricate leaf symbol engraved in the center. Several tiny droplets splashed on the forehead protector, darkening the scattered smears of dried blood. The tears cascading down Kaori's cheeks wouldn't stop.

"I'm sorry…Kaori-san. I couldn't bring his…body," Kintarou said. "He…rather, his body was stuck between two boulders. I didn't know it was him until I pulled his forehead protector off, and saw part of the strap from his quiver still attached. I hoped maybe it wasn't, but…"

Kaori silently nodded, clutching the forehead protector to her chest. The uncomfortable silence that followed was becoming too common.

"Kintarou-san..." Ren coughed as he approached. "What happened…did you fi—"

"We should go…" Kaori quietly murmured.

Ren paused and then slowly understood, mournfully dropping to his knees. Kintarou took a brief glance back down the gorge before grabbing Ren around his shoulders and lifting him to his feet.

"…Right…" he nodded.

Kintarou helped Ren back over the rocky plateau remains as Kaori fell in a few steps behind them. The three of them stopped beside the still unconscious girl. Without a word, Kintarou carefully picked her up and balanced her slim body on his shoulder. Ren brought his glazed-over eyes up to her face, brushing a few strands of her hair with his fingers. Kaori stared silently at the ground, until Kintarou tenderly placed a hand on her shoulder. The two remaining Chuunin glanced once more at the gorge, quietly losing hold of their emotions. Kaori wiped away the tears drying on her face with the back of her hand, still holding tightly to her teammates forehead protector.

"Come on…" Kintarou gloomily sighed.

The setting sun behind them, the two ANBU hopefuls marched somberly back to retrieve their gear. Their eyes met briefly before quickly turning back towards the path ahead to Ren's home. There, they retrieved their pack from the yard, noticing the absence of the four injured Sound nin. Kaori slipped the equipment pack over her shoulders as she and Kintarou, who was still carrying the girl, turned to leave. Ren paused momentarily at the entrance to his home, kneeling beside the rock wall remains.

"Nanami…I'm sorry…Takeo-san…thank you…"

Kintarou grinned, though showing only sadness on his face. Kaori bit her lip as she looked down into her closed hand, staring at the small bit of Takeo's forehead protector sticking out. They glanced at one another, waiting until Ren joined them, and then the three turned away from the disasters behind them. They left Geyser, heading for home as broken as the plateau that had split their team apart along with it.