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Fifth

Ryuu leapt to the next branch, forcing his mind forward, ignoring the fact that Choji could be dead by now, and Neji was fighting Kidomaru alone, when Kidomaru had caught all of them, literally all of them, within a handful of seconds, then made a bow and arrows out of hardened webbing, picking off Naruto's clones. Fortunately, the real Naruto hadn't been there at that time, but he had swiftly been caught after. Now, it was already dark. They had been chasing the Sound Four for almost a day. They were close to catching them, though. They were just up ahead, by his senses.

"Shikamaru, should we try and fight them now or tomorrow?" Ryuu asked.

"Tomorrow," Shikamaru said. "Right now, my jutsus are useless. We'll just tail them at this distance for now."

Ryuu nodded, settling in for a long run. Time ticked by. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Finally, the sun rose, getting high enough to give Shikamaru a definite advantage before they moved in. Naruto moved to the front, stopping on a branch behind the two remaining Sound Four members, both of whom had stopped. Then, the others stopped around them, aside from Ryuu and Sai, who hid themselves in the tree above the others.

"When do we strike?" Sai asked using sign language, which he, Sai, and Shin had learned before the Chunin exams, in case they needed it.

"We don't," Ryuu signed back. "We're waiting."

"Why?" Sai signed.

"There's a fifth member," Ryuu responded. "Counting Ukon would make it sixth. Our job is handling them. Even if we can't take Sasuke back, we have to make sure Orochimaru can't take his body now. If he can't we'll have three years to get Sasuke back."

"Do the others know this?" Sai signed.

"Only Shikamaru," Ryuu signed. "It's not important yet. First, we have to deal with the Sound Four."

Sai nodded. As they watched, the others moved in, getting Sakon and Ukon separated from Tayuya. Then, in an impressive series of tricks and misdirection, Naruto managed to get the coffin Sasuke was trapped in. While Ryuu had no intention of Sasuke being returned to the Leaf, him being taken further from Orochimaru's base would definitely help run down the clock. Naruto took off with the coffin, grinning from ear to ear. The others all followed, Ryuu and Sai doing the same from above. Sakon and Tayuya both activated their Curse Marks to catch up and Ryuu smirked. Those had to eat up a lot of chakra. As they began to gain on the others, a series of paper bombs exploded beside Sakon and Ukon, sending a half dozen trees crashing to the ground, only for Sakon to appear off to the side, continuing.

"Don't you mess with me!" Sakon shouted.

Suddenly, as Akamaru was passing an explosive tag, he slipped, falling onto the branch where Sakon pinned him with wire. Kiba moved to help, but just as he landed over Akamaru, the tag exploded. Ryuu sighed in relief, and as the smoke cleared, it revealed Shin on a different tree with Akamaru under one arm and Kiba over his opposite shoulder. He set both down, turning toward Sakon and Ukon, who were on a tree across from them. Sakon and Ukon leapt at them and Shin yanked his hand backward, wires covered in explosive tags wrapping around them in midair.

"Shit!" Sakon shouted.

The tags exploded and Sakon and Ukon fell. Kiba grinned before wire suddenly wrapped around him, Akamaru, and Shin, dragging them after Sakon and Ukon. Ryuu shook his head, biting back a curse as Tayuya leapt for the coffin while Naruto and Shikamaru were distracted. As she got within five feet of it, Ryuu appeared behind it, kicking it as hard as he could and sending it crashing into her face, knocking her backward. Ryuu leaned forward to move to catch it, only for a blur to streak past, taking the coffin. Ryuu blinked, activating his Sharingan as Kimimaro landed on a branch behind the one where Tayuya had landed. He wore black pants and sandals, a light purple shirt with a strip hanging down to his shins in the front and back, a purple rope belt, silver-white hair, had two red dots on his forehead, and had a thin-armed curse mark between his collar bones.

"You were taking too long Tayuya," Kimimaro said.

"Shikamaru, remember what I said," Ryuu said. "Capture her alive if you can. Naruto, you focus on getting Sasuke. Leave him to me and Sai."

"Right," Naruto nodded.

They all leapt off of their branch, Tayuya spinning toward them, eyes wide, only to recover and leap up to stop them. However, Shikamaru landed short, catching her shadow just before she could jump to intercept the other three, allowing them to pass and chase after Kimimaro. Finally, they reached a break in the trees, finding Kimimaro waiting in the center of the massive clearing. The three of them landed lightly just as the coffin exploded, Sasuke landing on his feet, glancing at Ryuu. In that instant, as their Sharingan met, time seemed to halt. Sasuke stood, though Ryuu knew it was only genjutsu.

"How long do I have to stall?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm not sure," Ryuu said. "It's been a day and a half. I'd say fight Naruto until dark then take your time reaching Orochimaru. In the mean time, I'm going to get my ass kicked by Kimimaro."

"Understood," Sasuke nodded.

Then, Ryuu blinked and Sasuke was crouched again. He whipped his head away, turning and sprinting away from them.

"Go Naruto," Ryuu said.

Naruto took off at a sprint and Kimimaro moved to intercept him, only for Ryuu to appear in front of him, catching Kimimaro's punch and hurling him away from Naruto, allowing Naruto to pass. Kimimaro landed on his feet, watching Ryuu as Sai walked over to stand beside him. Then, Kimimaro extended a bone spike from each palm, Sai staring at it in shock.

"Shikotsumyaku," Ryuu said. "Bone control. Be careful. He's lethal!" Ryuu accented his statement by hurling a dozen shuriken.

As they reached Kimimaro, he slashed them all out of the air, all of the shuriken having been cut perfectly in half by the obviously far harder and sharper bone blade. Ryuu sighed. He couldn't use his tanto.

"Here," Sai said, unsealing a tipless tanto from a scroll and handing it to Ryuu. "I know you don't want yours damaged.

Ryuu smiled, drawing his own tanto and sealing it away before tucking the scroll in his ninja tool pouch, then streamed his chakra through the tanto Sai had loaned him, Sai doing the same with his own. Both charged and Kimimaro met their charge, knocking Ryuu's blade aside and spinning, slamming a kick into Ryuu's gut, hurling him away, before spinning and kicking Sai away as well. Just as Ryuu's feet touched the ground, Kimimaro's elbow crashed into his face, shattering his nose and launching him backward. He flipped, setting his hand on the ground only for Kimimaro to appear behind him, kicking him in the ribs and launching him sideways. Ryuu flipped, bouncing once before flipping and landing on his feet, skidding backward before slowing to a stop in a crouch, healing his nose. Once it was healed and numbed enough for him to fight, he watched Kimimaro carefully. Even with his Sharingan he hadn't been able to keep up. He completely released his Gravity Seals and stood, tossing his borrowed tanto aside.

"May I request a bone tanto so that we can make this interesting?" Ryuu asked.

Kimimaro watched him in silence for a moment before raising an arm, the spike shooting out of his palm and stabbing into the ground between Ryuu's feet, now with a round bone just long enough for two hands as a handle at the base of the two foot blade. It wasn't a tanto, but it would do. And because it was made from chakra, even if not his, it would conduct chakra as well as chakra metal.

Kimimaro cracked his neck, regrowing the spike. "Shall we begin?"

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