Author's Notes: Hi guys! I'm really sorry about the delay on this one, but, as I told you, I was on vacation and when I came back, I found out that my internet connection broke down... so yeah... sorry about that! But here it is! The new Chappie! Gon on, read it! ;P

"Ino!"

She had her eyes closed and her mouth a bit open. She seemed to be unconscious.

"Oh, is that her name? Well... no matter now... she's gone!"

Shikamaru clentched his fists and his shadow was trembling slightly.

"Let her go."

The mist nin snickered.

"I told you. She's dead."

Shikamaru sighed.

"She's not dead. I can see her chest rising and falling..."

The guy stoped smirking.

"Oh, we have a smart one heh?"

Shikamaru was starting to get impatient with this guy.

"Cut the crap! Just let her go!"

The guy laughed.

"Hmm... let me think... uh... the answer is no! No can do boy."

"Shikamaru..." Chouji whispered. "What are you waiting for...?"

Shikamaru never averted his gaze from the mist nin.

"The right opportunity."

Ino stirred slowly in her captor's arms and opened her eyes.

"Ino!" Chouji and Shikamaru exclaimed at the same time.

"Shikamaru... Chouji...?"

The guy smirked and then he noticed some movement besides him. He jumped to the tree on his right and placed a kunai on Ino's troath.

"Tks, tsk, tsk... too slow boy! Now, retreat that nasty shadow if you want her alive..."

Shikamaru cursed under his breath and did as told.

"How troublesome..."

"And you, chubby, don't even think about it! Stay away from me or she suffers!"

Ino grabbed the guy's hand with her own and tried to remove it from near her neck but the guy was much to strong.

"Oh no you don't lady." He grabbed Ino's hand with his other hand and pressed the kunai further drawing some blood in the process. "You listen to me boys and you better listen good. Stay away from the Sand. Do not complete this mission! Don't forget my warning... or you might hurt yourselves... do warn your friends! Now," he dropped Ino from the top of the tree. "Ta ta!" And then disapeared in a puff of smoke.

Shikamaru rushed froward and caught Ino before she hit the floor.

"Ino are you alright?"

Ino grabed her troath and took some deep breaths. Then she held her head with both hands and made a pained expression.

"I... I'm fine... I think."

Shikamaru helped her get up while Chouji approached them.

"What did he do to you?" Her chubby teammate asked.

"I don't relly remember... but I don't think he did anything... he just held me captive... I think."

Ino touched her forehead again and winced.

"My head hurts a lot tough... I guess he hit me hard when he put me out."

Shikamaru and Chouji exchanged worried glances.

"Maybe we should get back to camp."

They nooded.

"But let's not wake up anybody else. I don't think it's necessary..." Ino said. Shikamaru and Chouji nooded in agreement.

Ino took a few steps and then she lost strenght in her legs and almost fell to the ground. Shikamaru grabed her by the waist at the last moment.

"Are you really alright?" He asked concerned.

She sighed. "I'm fine."

He grabed her arm and placed it above his shoulders.

"I'll help you."

"No really, it's okay."

But she didn't made any effort to remove his arm.

They were walking back to camp rather slowly because Ino kept loosing strenght in her legs.

"Shikamaru... I... I don't feel so good..."

They stopped.

"What's the matter, Ino?" Chouji approached them, also preocupied.

"I... I..."

Sudenly she blacked out.

"Ino!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Ino woke up screaming like a mad banshee and wailing her arms and kicking her legs.

"Ino we're here! It's okay! Calm down!"

Ino fought Shikamaru who was desperatly trying to calm her down by grabbing her.

"Let me go!"

"Ino stop it! It's me!"

Ino wailed her arms some more but then she realized that it was Shikamaru so she buried her head on his chest and cried.

"Ino..." Shikamaru had never seen his strong teammate shed a tear. Sure she cried! She just chose not to do it in front of people. She wanted to maintain her cool demanor, her strong personality. "Shh... calm down... it's okay..." Her pride...

He patted her hair and said soothing words, or at least he tried to. Calming a girl down wasn't exactly what he did on his Jounin missions and wasn't on his to do list aswell.

Sakura entered their tent.

"Ino! Are you alright?" The pink kunoishi asked with concern.

Ino let go of Shikamaru and hugged her knees breathing fast, trying desperatly to calm down and rid herself of the embarassing tears.

"I... I... I'm okay."

Sakura approached her, sadness and sorrow written in her eyes, and hugged her best friend. Shikamaru took this has his cue to leave, but not before looking back at a shaken Ino. A side of Ino he never saw... and a side of Ino he never wanted to see again...

He closed the zipper on the tent and joined the rest of the gang that was gathered by the fire. Altough Shikamaru and Chouji didn't wanted to wake everybody up, they had to wake Sakura to check Ino out and the comotion ended up in waking all the nins.

"Is she okay?" Chouji asked with a burnt Marshmellow on the end of his stick. He was so worried about his teammate that he wasn't even hungry.

Shikamaru sighed and sat next to him.

"I guess so. Sakura's with her now."

"Who was that ninja anyway?" Naruto asked while trying to heat his hands by the fire. Hinata took some gloves from her backpack and handed them timidly to Naruto. "Hey thanks Hinata!"

"I don't know!" Shikamaru said. He was starting to get annoyed by all this questioning.

"Was he alone?" Neji was a bit away from the fire but had his eyes glued on Shikamaru. He wanted to make sure that the Mist nin wasn't still around.

"I think so, I don't know for sure."

"What in the world did he do to her?" Tenten was very angry at the fact that one of her friends was atacked in the middle of the night so she decided this was the perfect time to practice her aim at the poor trees that surrounded her.

Shikamaru got up, angry.

"I don't know guys! She was unconscious when we found her, the guy threatened us, he left, she regained consciousness, said she wasn't feeling well and dropped down on the floor! That's all I know!"

He kicked a small stone that was on the floor and placed both of his hands in his trousers pockets.

The group shut up and stared at the fire, not wanting to piss Shikamaru anymore. He looked like he needed some time to himself.

Hinata got up and left. Naruto noticed this and followed her.

"Hinata wait! It's dangerous! We don't know if there are any more ninjas around."

"Naruto-kun... I... I just..." She started playing with her fingers. Naruto smiled a bit and scratched the back of his head.

"Hey Hinata... we're all worried about Ino and this Ninja, but we have to pull trough, you know?"

Hinata smiled a bit.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun."

He grined.

"Hey that's what friends are for right?"

"Hai!"

In Ino's tent

"Shh... Ino, it's okay..." Sakura was trying desperatly to calm her friend down. "What happened?"

Ino calmed down a bit and wiped her tears with her hand.

"I had this weird... vision thing! But I can't remember what was it about... but I just know it's bad Sakura..."

Ino brought her hands to her head.

"Ugh! It feels like somebody took all my memories away! But I can still remember them... what the hell is wrong with me, Sakura?"

Sakura looked at her best friends and shrugged, her eyes filled with sadness. She didn't knew what to do or what to say.

"I... I don't know..."

The day was almost rising and the leaf ninjas hadn't gotten much sleep but that couldn't stop them, they had to keep moving. Even more now that they had the mist ninjas after them.

Chouji was having his breakfast. "Hey guys, where's Shikamaru? I haven't seen him since last night..."

As on cue, Shikamaru appeared from the woods. "I'm here." He sat down near Chouji, took an apple and started eating it.

"I couldn't find the mist ninja."

"I bet that he'll show up again. I don't think he came here just to warn us not to go to the sand." Lee stated matter of factly.

"Yeah, probabily." Shika agreed. "So, how's Ino?" He asked in the most casual way he could muster.

"Why Shikamaru, I never knew you cared! I'm fine, thank you!"

"Ino!"

She smiled, bent down near Shikamaru and snatched the apple from his hand. She giggled and took a bite.

"We're ready to go guys!" Sakura said while leaving the tent.

Shikamaru looked at Sakura and then moved his gaze back to his blond teammate. "Are you alright?"

"Yes Shikamaru, I'm fine now. I just had a bad migraine yesterday." She winked at him. "Let's get going."

They all dismounted the tents, grabed their stuff and left, ready for another day.

"Sakura-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Sakura sighed.

"For the hundreth time, Lee. I do not want a piggy back ride!"

Lee pouted.

"Pleaseeee! Sakura-san, you know I'd do anything for you!"

Lee had been pestering Sakura since they left camp. Apparently, he thought that giving her a piggy back ride in the middle of the woods was a perfectly normal thing to do! And, altough Sakura thought otherwise, Lee was a very persistent man!

"Lee! I'm fine, really! Go ask somebody else!"

Lee's smile brightened.

"You're right!" Lee turned to Tenten. "Hey Tenten, want a-..."

Faster than you can say 'Gai Sensei is the best teacher in the world', Tenten had a very sharp kunai in front of Lee's nose. "Lookie, unless you want to rid yourself of the abbility to smell things and distinguish if you're having sushi for dinner instead of cat food, don't even think about it, buddy!"

Lee gulped audibly and smiled.

"Gomen Tenten! I'll leave now..." And Lee went back to pestering Sakura.

"Good..." Tenten continued sharpening her prized kunais.

"Hmm... aren't we moody...? is it that time of the month already?"

Tenten gripped her kunai so tight that you could almost see it cracking.

"Listen Hyuuga, and you listen well!" Tenten was now waving the same very sharp kunai in front of Neji's stoic face, who remained calm and with his arms crossed. "You do not, and I repeat, do not (!) want to mess with a girl with PMS, very sharp kunais and extremely good skils with weapons, so I advise you: LEAVE ME ALONE!"

She gave him the most fearfull look she could muster and continued walking on the path. Neji remained still for a few seconds and then followed her.

"So this means we can't have our daily dose of flirting right?"

If Tenten hadn't a tree near her she would've fallen of on the floor right then.

"Hyuuga Neji! Are you mental? Insane?" She had a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks and was very frustrated at the moment. "We never have any 'Daily dose of flirting' thing!" She said while waving her arms.

Now this was one of those rare times when Neji finds his daily amusement. He absolutly adores to get on Tenten's nerves. Of course that nobody knows that... except you reading this now! So shhhh! Don't go telling everybody!

He smirked and Tenten blushed again. Then he placed his right hand on his heart and pretended to be hurt.

"Oh Tenten! You do hurt me, you know?"

Tenten was now confused.

"Well... that's good!" she crossed her arms.

"Are you trying to say that all these years I was mistaken? That we do not have anything between us?" as Neji was reciting his little drama act, he was approaching Tenten who, in turn, was backing away. Finaly, Neji had her cornered and damn, this was happining a lot these days! (Author whistles! Oh not my fault! Ihih)

Tenten was starting to freak out. "Snap out of it Neji! You're going insane! Have you been bitten by any bug or something?" Neji droped the act and smirked again.

"Tenten," he approached her like he had done the day before. She could almost feel his hot breath on her lips and she felt her legs falter, yet again. And she was telling herself desperatly to get a grip! "We should go." He made a movement to remove his arms from the tree but got cought up on her bright brown orbs.

They stayed like that for quite some time, staring into each other's eyes and moving very slowly into each other.

"Hey! Love birds back there! Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Kiba shouted. Tenten blushed and pushed Neji away.

"Let's go Hyuuga." Neji scratched his head and followed her. "What the hell was I doing?" He shook is head and continued on his way.

"Sakura-san! None of the girls wants a piggy back ride! So I'm asking you again!"

"Lee..."

Sakura tightned her grip on her backpack. Honestly, she found Lee a very good friend and someone that you could actualy lean on, on desperate times, but Jesus! The man just didn't gave up and he didn't took a no for an answer!

"Sakura-san!"

"Augh!"

Sakura fastened her pace and turned right into the woods, enfuriated with Lee's presistence and blinded by an inside rage, she didn't really knew where she was going.

"Sakura! Watch out!" Sasuke yelled.

"Wha-..?"

She felt her feet loose the ground and lost her balance, then she felt a pair of strong arms encircle her waist and trying to pull her back, but failling miserably. Then they both fell, rolling down the ravine.

When they finaly stoped, Sasuke was on top of Sakura and they were both breathing rather fast and had a... hum, how can I say this, messy appearence? They had leaves and twigs on their hairs and clothes.

They don't know exactly for how long they remained like that, just staring at each other's eyes and, in case of Sakura, blushing.

"Hey guys! That usualy works better without the clothes on!"

Both of them blushed and looked up. The whole group was smirking down on them and Naruto was laughing his ass of.

Sasuke shoot him a death glare while he got up and then he helped Sakura up.

"Just watch where you're going next time, Sakura."

She nooded, still blushing, and then went up the hill to meet the rest of the smirking gang.

"Are we there yet?"

Sakura raised her hands up in the hair.

"For Pete's sake Naruto! If you ask that one more time I'm gonna tear you apart, limb by limb, then I'm going to cut the pieces into even more tiny pieces and..."

While talking, Sakura illustrated her speach with very detailed hand gestures that made Naruto back away in fright.

"Sakura..."

"And then I'll make marshmellows out of them!"

"Sakura breathe, please!" Naruto tried desperatly to calm her down.

"And then I'll feed them to Chouji, and then..."

"Shut up forehead girl!"

That did the trick.

"Whaaaaat?"

Ino smirked.

"That's for hitting on my Sasuke-kun back there!"

"Hey! He's not your Sasuke-kun!"

Ino grinned. "Hey chill, Sakura."

Sakura smiled. "Sorry..."

"Erm... guys..."

Everybody looked at Chouji who sounded weird and really worried.

"Guys, there's like.. a major problem!"

Everybody stopped dead on their tracks.

"What is it?"

"The... the... the food is all gone!"

He started crying his eyes out.

"What are you talking about?" Kiba inquired.

"Somebody stole our food!" Chouji cryed out.

"Stole?" They said in unisson.

Chouji stoped crying sudenly and stared at the ground.

"Yeah stole... or... maybe I ate... all of the food... something like that!"

They all sweatdropped.

"What?"

Ino came running.

"Chouji how could you?"

Chouji raised his and in the air.

"Gomen, gomen guys! I was really hungry and I ate all my chips yesterday!"

"But Chouji," Shikamaru started. "There was food for 5 days in there."

Chouji patted his belly and smirked.

"Yeah I know! I'm full now!"

They all sweatdroped. Kiba sank to the ground.

"That's it... we're doomed!" He raised his hands out "Doomed I tell you!"

"Well now what?" Naruto asked.

"My bugs say that there's a town near us. We should be able to find it and buy some food there." Shino stated.

Ino gave Chouji a stern look, much like a mother does to a missbehaving child. "Damn you Chouji! From this day on, you're on a diet! And I'm supervising it!"

Chouji sweatdropped.

"I'm hungry!" Naruto said for the tenth time.

"Yeah, me too..." Chouji said. Everybody sent him looks that could kill and he raised his arms in a defensive state. "Hey I was just kidding!" they all turned their gaze away. "...not..." he finished while patting his stomach wich growled.

"Hey, Naruto, want a dog biscuit?" Kiba asked.

"Eww Kiba! How can you eat that?" Tenten asked, grossed.

"What? It's nutricious!" He retorted, offended. Hinata laughed softly.

"H-he does t-that all the time, Tenten. H-he made me try o-one once... T-they're not t-that bad, r-really."

Tenten eyed Hinata like she was some allien from outter space that was here in order to conquest Earth by using dog biscuits and her allien helper, Kiba, who pressuaded human people to eat the bacteria infested biscuit and then died with convulsions and in the end the alliens would raise a green flag with a red victory sign and carved it in the middle of all the human dead bodies.

She shook her head to dismiss such thoughts and moved her gaze from kiba to the dog's biscuits with curiosity.

"Wanna try?"

She could almost see Kiba burying the green flag with the victory sign and laugh maniacly.

"Nah I think I'll pass!" she answered quickly.

"Hey, your loss!" Kiba shoved a handfull of biscuits down his troath and munched on them. Naruto snatched one from his hand and without thinking shoved it onto his own troath.

Tenten panicked. "NO NARUTO! THE GREEN FLAG WITH THE VICTORY SIGN! NO!" Naruto looked at her with his mouth opened.

"What...?"

Neji shook his head and smirked.

"PMS..." He said to Naruto.

"Oh..."

"Stupid asshole!" Tenten tryed to kick Neji who evaded the atack and smirked.

"Anyway, this is really good!" Naruto said Kiba while snatching some more of the dog biscuits.

"I told ya!" Kiba smirked and then took the biscuits away from Naruto.

"Now beat it! They're mine!"

Naruto started whining.

"Oh come on! Just some more! I'm starving here!"

"No! Go away! Shoo! These are for conquering the Earth! Shoo!"

Tenten opened her eyes widly and stared at Kiba. "What...?" Kiba smirked and Tenten could swore she saw him bury the green flag with the red victory sign on top of a dead Naruto.

But then again... this is just my twisted mind playing tricks on poor Tenten's mind! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Erm... on with the story.

Hinata chuckled slightly and kept walking near Shino and Tenten.

Near the front, Sakura approached Sasuke who was walking alone, as always.

"Hi, Sasuke..."

If the onix haired boy noticed the lack of the sufix on his name, he didn't gave it away.

"Hn..."

She continued to walk with him in silence for some more minutes.

"Ano... I just... I wanted to say thank you... back there, you know?"

Sasuke looked at her, expressionless, as always.

"No problem."

Sakura sighed.

"Hey everybody! Look over there!" They all looked to where Lee pointed.

"Oh, it's a town!" Said Sakura.

"Let's check it out." Sasuke said.

Ino approached Shino.

"Humpf... looks like those gross things you're carying around were right..."

Shino looked at her expressionless, wich creeped her out. "They always are... aren't you my little boys?" Shino asked his bugs.

"Ay, ay Capt'n!"

"I can't hear youuuuuuu!"

"Ay, ay Capt'n!" The bugs answered.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Shino started "HHHHHHHHHH-..."

"What the hell are you doing?" Ino eyed him suspiciously.

"HHHhhh...ohhhhh...hhhh...hh...h..." Shino got silent.

He looked at Ino, she looked at him, he looked back at her, she looked back at him.

"Weirdo..." She started walking.

"Oh yeah? Well if you say a word of what you saw to anybody you're gonna wake up with some nasty (no offence to you boys) bugs on your bed!"

Ino raised her eyebrow.

"Are you threatning me?"

Shino got silent for some time and Ino continued gazing at him with an evil glint in her eyes.

"Yeah, guess I am."

Ino smiled. "Oh, that's what I thought!" She giggled. "I just wasn't sure! Anyway, your little secret is safe with me Mr. Square Pants! Ehehe."

Shino sweatdroped.

"Hey, no funny jokes!"

Ino chucked. "Yeah right! We shall see that you smexeh yellow sponge!" Ino bursted out laughing. Shino was still sweatdropping.

Anyways, everybody entered the town. It wasn't a ninja town and it looked really nice.

"Wow! Look! Food!"

Naruto, Kiba and Chouji ran to a ramen stand. The girls wrinkled their noses.

"I don't want ramen..." Tenten grumbled.

"Me neither!" Sakura said.

"Yeah, ramen makes you fat!" Ino stated.

"Ano... I don't really mind h-having ramen..." Hinata said, blushing. Naruto had a bright grin on his face.

"Come on girls? Why can't you be more like Hinata!"

Naruto placed his arms around hinata's shoulders and her face was now redder than a tomato.

"You could all stop being crazed ass bitches and act really nice like Hinata here!"

"Whaaat?" The three girls said.

"You ass!" They all ran after Naruto to hurt him... badly... while Hinata stood transfixed in the same spot, still blushing...

"What the hell?" Sasuke asked while watching the girls ran after a smirking Naruto.

"PMS my friend... PMS..." Neji said matter of factly.

"Oh..." Sasuke answered. "Well ain't that a bitch?" And then they walked to the ramen stand and ordered some food.

©Pandora