Hey everyone! Sorry about the delay! Btw, just wanted to send a quick shout out to RockLeeLover, thank you for caring (again!)! And thanks to everyone who reviewed…I have not failed you guys. If the last chapters did not clear much up, this one definitely will. Thanks!

Chapter 9

Discovered: Pasts Unveiled

Sakura, Tenten and Hinata heaved Ino's limp body to the alleyway separating the school and the cafeteria. The alleyway was quite hidden, and few people dared to venture into it in fear of bug or snake encounters. At this point however, the girls could care less about snakes or bugs.

They set Ino atop the dumpster (the lid was down) so the dirt on the ground would not infect her wounds too much. Sakura dampened her handkerchief and used it to dab the blood off Ino's face.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later. There is no denying it." Tenten said as she put her face in her hands.

"It just happened at a bad time…" Hinata looked at the unconscious Ino. "A very bad time. I think it's safe to say our cover is pretty much blown." When Sakura finished cleansing Ino's facial wounds, she daintily folded up her handkerchief.

"It wasn't Ino's fault," she claimed, almost in tears at her friend's state. "Temari is the one who pushed her to her limit. Temari is…" Sakura's eyes widened.

"Is what?" Hinata asked eagerly, feeling the tension radiating off Sakura.

"The enemy." Sakura said, as if she had never heard the word before.

"Well, we know that don't we?" Tenten said in an obvious tone. "I mean look at Ino…"

"No," Sakura interrupted. "I mean the enemy from the prophecy. Remember? An encounter with the enemy proves to feel necessary, but of no use…" Sakura quoted the prophecy.

"And with only two words said, all Hell will break loose." The girls immediately froze when they heard a voice speak this from behind them. A voice that was certainly not feminine. It actually sounded more like…

"Sasuke?" Sakura exclaimed in shock. Behind Sasuke were Neji, Naruto and a distressed Shikamaru.

"How…" Tenten began, but was just as shocked as Sakura.

"How do we know the prophecy?" Neji finished for her. Tenten nodded with wide eyes. "Let's just say, there are some things about us you do not know."

"I'll say…" Sakura said.

"Mind explaining?" Hinata asked, putting her hands on her hips (so not Hinata-like!).

"You first!" Naruto budged in with his usual energy filled voice, his arms folded.

"Us? We asked you first!" Sakura spat back. As all the bickering went back and forth, Shikamaru walked over to Ino. He put his hand over her cold pale one.

"Ino…" He squeezed it. "I had no idea…" Shikamaru never cried. It was against his man code. He would never cry, especially not in front of women. But now, he could just feel his tears being tugged out, him powerless to stop it. A single tear drop fell from one of his dark brown eyes, and landed with a small splash on Ino's cheek. He gasped as he saw this happen, as if he had never seen his own tears before. With one last withering look at Ino, he slowly released her hand and walked away.

"Ok, fine." Tenten said, putting her hands up. "Enough! We will tell you our story, but you also have to spill yours. Deal?" She looked at the boys, pointedly. They all nodded, which was taken as a yes. Sakura took in a large breath, getting ready to let loose a lot of words. Just as she was about to begin, there was a faint stir heard from the dumpster top.

"Unh…ergh…hm?" was the next thing they heard. Just after, Ino had rolled on her side and began to sit up, painfully at that, but still sitting up. "What did I miss?"

"Ino!" Her friends scurried over to where their friend had awakened.

"You're ok!" Hinata squealed happily. Ino just then had grunted and clutched the pain in her neck.

"I wouldn't go that far…" she glanced at her blood. "But all that matters is that I'm alive." Shikamaru was hidden behind his friends. He instantly glowed and felt like crying again, only this time from happiness. It wasn't until a few seconds later did she notice him. Shikamaru…

"I cleaned the blood off your face so you wouldn't wake up to that stiff feeling in your face when blood dries over it," said Sakura while holding up the bloody handkerchief for proof. With a resounding 'ew' everyone took a step back from it. Neji and Sasuke just went 'hn' and closed their eyes.

"Thanks Sakura," Ino said softly, thinking about her fight with Temari. "But I woke up when this salty taste just sorta came to the tip of my tongue." She shuddered at the thought of not knowing what the taste was. Shikamaru froze up.

"It was probably just sweat," said Hinata. Shikamaru was relieved. Ino nodded.

"Yeah, probably. So, what were you guys talking about while I was er, out?" she asked while scratching her head as if she had not just had a tremendous power burst only twenty minutes ago.

"Your friends were just about to explain to us this past you keep hidden." Neji stepped forward. He looked at Tenten. "Right?" he asked her.

"Sure," she growled. Neji smirked at this reaction. "Where to begin…" she thought aloud.

"It all started when we were six," began Hinata. "First, I will tell you what this place tried to convince people it was. If we were asked about it, we were to say we went to an all girls school in the rain village with a principal named Rin."

"Yeah, and…" Naruto said impatiently. Sasuke hit him on the head.

"What it really was, was a recruiting organization off the maps that took girls from their homes and would teach them very powerful techniques and train them to be, well, evil." Sakura said. "Led by an evil woman named Rin," she added.

"Then wouldn't that make you…?" Shikamaru asked in an anxious voice.

"Huh? Oh, no!" said Sakura reassuringly. "We didn't let that happen. We'll tell you why now." She nodded at Ino to take it away.

"So one day," began Ino, hopping off the dumpster. She limped a little, but stayed on her feet. "We began having strange outbursts of power. We have no idea why, but in class or in the hall we would just go crazy and attack teachers or students."

"Sakura created a tornado in her study hall once," said Tenten simply, as if people formed tornadoes in their study halls everyday.

"And Ino set her homework on fire with her mind," added Hinata.

"Hinata unconsciously flooded the girls bathroom," said Sakura.

"And Tenten made an earthquake during lunch," finished Ino. The boys were pretty engaged. Who would have thought, thought Sasuke, glancing at Sakura. A girl who isn't lovesick and weak…

"So what's the deal with this Rin character?" asked Neji, squinting his eyes. The girls all bit their lips.

"Well, that's where it gets kind of complicated," explained Tenten slowly. "As our little 'power impulses' increased, Rin began to grow suspicious." The boys became even more interested.

"One day, she took us away from our classes and into this odd place…it's very hard to explain…but we know it wasn't school." Hinata said, shivering at her memory. "She can teleport herself and other people to wherever she pleases, so we could have been on the other side of the world for all we knew. All we know is that it was cold, dark and morose."

"She began to lecture each of us on this fate we had, and that it was inevitable." Ino fixed her eyes straight ahead as she recalled the moment. "It was almost as if she was trying to avoid a larger fate…a fate that could have destroyed her." The boy's eyes widened.

"If that was the case, she made sure it would not happen," said Sakura tossing a pebble from one hand to the other. "That is when she put these marks on us," they turned their ankles toward the boys to show their marks, which to their surprise, had grown larger. The lines branching out had grown at least a centimeter longer. "They were seals to bottle up our powers, so the fate she was fearing would not occur. When broken, as Ino's did, they grow nearly uncontrollable and our powers reach an all time high (AN: I know, like Sasuke's curse mark, but this is a story people)." The boys looked at their marks. So that's it. Neji looked at Tenten's specific mark. I knew it. It is her.

"They will flare up when our fate is close to unfolding." Hinata pointed to the edges of her seal, where the skin had turned red from the blistering pain it had endured. Naruto nearly gasped when he saw it. Wow, he thought. Hinata sure is tough! Could have fooled me. That's really cool.

The boys were now fully engaged and had all climbed upon the dumpster to sit while they listened to the girls past.

"Of course, we attempted fleeing," Ino said, as she leaned against the brick wall. "But it was odd when she acted as if it didn't bother her. All she did was set us off with a part of the prophecy, and let us go." She swung her leg back and forth. "She seemed pretty confident our fates would find us no matter where we hid. And apparently she was right." She glanced down at her mark and sighed. The guys nodded.

"We decided to come to Konoha, since we once had family here. Sakura's house was still left, so we decided to live there." Tenten said, sitting against the wall. "That is, until we found that the prophecy began relating to every event that happened here so far. All in one day too." She bit at her nails. "And now we're here in a dirty alleyway, our fates completely open and with a bunch of guys who could help us further understand what the hell is going on."

"Wow," said Naruto, his chin supported on his hand. "That's rough." He hopped down. "But…"

"We can beat that," said Shikamaru, folding his arms. The girls raised their eyebrows.

"Well, you seem quite interested in everything we just told you." Ino stepped up, with her hands on her hips.

"Oh, we are interested," said Neji. "But maybe if we told you our story now, we could link some things together." The girls looked at one another, shrugged, and then they sat on top of the dumpster this time (lid still closed!).

"We started out in a similar situation as yours," began Neji. "But we were within the fire country."

"We went to a normal school, normal people…except this one teacher, Kiroku (I have no idea what that means! I just made it that because it sounded right.). He was supposedly from the Sound Village." Naruto added as he paced back and forth.

"He had an annoyingly close watch on us and our techniques," broke in Sasuke. "Until one day- like you- he pulled us aside. However, you tried to break free from your situation. This man was the one sending us away. However, not before he gave us these." All at once, all the boys tore open their shirts. The girls were taken by surprise, and their eyes widened. They all were in awe of their crush's fine abs and pecks, not even realizing that they were gawking.

"Ahem," Shikamaru cleared his throat to get the attention of the girls. With much effort, they pulled their gazes away from the boys finely chiseled abs and looked to the most focal point of them. In their upper left chests, seemingly just over their hearts, they too had seals. Neji's was identical to Tenten's, Sasuke's to Sakura's, Shikamaru's to Ino's and Naruto's to Hinata's. The girls immediately gasped.

"Unreal…" Tenten, without thinking, put her hand on Neji's mark. Neji slightly jumped at this unexpected action, but let her do it. That is, until she realized what she was doing and pulled away with a red face.

Ino looked from her mark to Shikamaru's. "No way," she said stepping closer.

He stepped closer to. "It's troublesome, but way." They stood looking at each other for a split second before quickly looking away.

"I had a feeling you knew something about me that you couldn't learn from that questionnaire." Sakura stood next to Sasuke. For just about the first time in his life, he turned to look at Sakura.

"I didn't…I could just…" Sasuke realized he wasn't acting like himself at all. The great Sasuke Uchiha never showed signs of remote passion or care. But this time, this person…was different. "Feel it." He finished bashfully, turning away from Sakura again. Sakura did not care this time. She liked what she heard.

Hinata had still been staring wide-eyed at Naruto's seal. Naruto waved a hand in front of her face.

"Fire Country to Hinata?" Naruto waved his hand again. Hinata snapped out of it.

"S-s-sorry Naruto," she stuttered. "I g-guess I'm j-just…surprised. I-is all." Naruto stepped closer to her, but she did not notice.

"I know, me too," he said. They stood looking at their feet until Naruto broke the silence. "By the way, Hinata?" he asked. Hinata looked up.

"Yes, N-naruto?"

"You don't need to stutter around me anymore." He smiled warmly. Hinata smiled gratefully back.

"Thank you…Naruto." She said quietly.

Once everyone had finished with their moments, Ino spoke up.

"But this still doesn't explain why you know the prophecy," she reminded them.

"Oh yes," answered Shikamaru. "Like you, Kiroku left us with that first part too. He claimed we were 'in no need of the rest'." Everyone took up suspicious looks.

"That's exactly what Rin told us." Hinata quietly said.

"So, according to prophecy, our fates are obviously linked. But…what about the last part of the prophecy?" Tenten questioned the guys. They all looked at Shikamaru.

"Yeah…" Shikamaru began in a faltering voice. "I broke up with Temari." He confessed. The boys nodded in a 'that's the sad truth' way. Ino had obviously brightened up. Did he really?

"Yeah, that's great and all, but we have other issues at hand." Sakura said with a raised eyebrow.

"No, it's how I said it." Shikamaru said a bit louder. This caught the girl's attention. "I said 'we're over'…two…words." He said hesitantly, squinting his eyes. A collection gasp ran through the girls. Their worst of nightmares had come true.

"So…it's really happened now." Ino said quietly, gripping her fist.

"Yeah…" Sakura looked at the ground. "I just wish we knew what exactly it is."

"Perhaps, I can help you there." A voice came from down the alleyway. The girls and guys all turned and were more surprised than ever to see whom they saw.

Again, one of my trademark horrible cliffhangers, but they are just ever so fun. Not really. It just gives me a head for the next chapter. For all of you who think this is too focused on ShikaIno at the moment (I tend to get carried away with them, they are like my favorite pair), not to worry! There will be more romance between the other pairs too, but still lots of action. I hope many questions (besides the cliffhanger) are answered, please keep reading! R and R, thanks!