Ai looked to her companions and shrugged, turning her attention back toward the flowers. Three figures began to slowly rise from the flower bed.

"FIRE STYLE, FIREBALL JUTSU!" yelled Batsu as he unleashed a sphere of flame from his mouth.

The creeping dirt creatures disintegrated within the ball of fire.

"Make more! We need to take out the Uchiha first." said a male voice to his comrades.

The dirt creatures began to rise all over the clearing, encircling Batsu Ai and Rai. The creatures slowly trudged toward them and even though they

were surrounded Rai, Batsu and Ai were oddly calm.

"You see where they are Rai?" asked Ai.

"They're at the opposite end of where we entered, the clearing at." replied Rai.

Ai nodded her head saying "Good, Batsu do it."

Rai and Ai sprang into the air as Batsu spat a stream of flame from his mouth, barricading them behind a wall of fire. Ai spun in the air, as she landed she caught a glimpse of one of the members of the opposing team, with her sharingan. Rai, Ai and Batsu went unseen within the wall of fire, the dirt creatures continued clumsily forward, toward the flame.

"Stupid move, they'll themselves inside that thing. I expected better from an Uchiha." said one of the male ninja's with a smile of triumph.

The other male ninja rigidly turned his head toward the first male, a twisted look of discomfort on his face. He attempted to speak, cackling noises were all that could be heard. Exhaling as his eyes rolled to the back of his head, falling off the branch to the ground below.

"Wha, what. . . just happened." asked the ninja in fear as he watched his comrade fall to the grassy floor below.

He looked to his female companion, who gazed back at him confused. Before she could utter a word, lightning streaked passed ramming the kunoichi through the nearest tree. The male ninja fell to his rear in fright, looking toward the clearing the wall of fire was gone the creatures had returned to dirt.

"H, how, is this the power of the sharingan!" he shouted in fear.

The ninja felt a hand grasp the back of head tightly, it was warm, more so than it should have been.

"No, this is the power of careful planning." said Batsu.

As Batsu's body erupted with scores of heat, the enemy ninja screamed in pain, but, only for a moment. The flesh from his skull ran off the fingers of Batsu like fresh water from a river. The tree he stood on burst into flame from the heat exuded from Batsu's Tenpei Hada or Sun Skin, kekkei genkai. Rai and Ai watched from below as the tree crumbled into ash, Batsu walked away as the grass of the clearing caught fire, setting the entire clearing ablaze.

"Did you really need to let everyone know you were here?" asked Ai riled.

Rai was also annoyed as she glared at Batsu, who rubbed his head in embarrassment.

"I seriously didn't mean for that to happen." he said ashamed.

Because of the high flames Batsu caused, his team went without sleep the first night. They were forced to constantly due battle with a multitude of other teams, seeking the cause of the bonfire. Daylight fell upon them as leaving another team to lie unconscious among the forest trees.

Rai smiled cheerfully as the sunlight settled on her skin, saying "Well at least we haven't run into any animals."

Batsu and Ai stopped, which made Rai stopped she looked at them in confusion. They stared her in disbelief Batsu saying "Did you really just say that right now?"

Rai was confused, she bit her lip as she looked down in an attempt to figure out where she had went wrong.

"Was I not supposed to say that?" she asked.

Ai combed her fingers through her hair saying "You jinxed us. You said something we were thinking when you could ave kept it to yourself."

Rai looked at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you two serious right now, your superstitious? I know we haven't gotten any sleep but come on. I get it, were in a magic forest, but, I've yet to see anything outside of the ordinary." Rai said to her teammates with a giggle.

Ai and Batsu begin to feel silly. From behind them, the whistling of birds could be heard off in the distance. Then, without warning a click was heard and a cloud white dust jutted upward behind Batsu.

Rai's laughter stopped as she rolled away from the sound, Ai quickly stepped away from the sound as well. Batsu began to cough his eyes red from contact with the dust.

He began to move forward saying "Hey I can't feel my hands, or my legs for that matter."

He fell to his knees as he opened and closed his hands in an effort to make blood to them.

"Someone's here, I can't see them though there outside of my range. What about you Ai?" asked Rai.

Ai looked to Rai, the tension around them rising.

"We need to move Batsu now!" Ai said.

As she spoke a volley of knives began to fly in towards them clouds of white exploding with every knife that landed. They managed to get through the bombardment without breathing in the dust or being hit by the knives. Finding a tree large enough to hide the three of them.

"Keep it up Mai we've got right where we want them. Yuri it's your turn to go and bring them into the open, so she can finish." said Nori with a devilish grin.

Ai quickly pushed the tip of Batsu fingers, his capillaries refilled just fine so he wasn't suffering from some form of blood loss. She surveyed his body and noticed his chakra hadn't been disrupted either.

"He looks stiff, like he's been hit by lightning or something." said Rai with concern.

"That's it!" Ai thought.

"He's been paralyzed, or is being paralyzed. I hope, the only way to really is to the one that did this to tell me." Ai continued to think.

Ai stood to her feet and looked at Batsu, the n to Rai saying "We to counter strike now!"

"But, we don't know what's wrong with him shouldn't we assess-"

Rai was cut off by Ai "I already know what's wrong, he's been paralyzed. We need to act fast since that may not be the only thing this poison does to him."

Rai looked as though she had more to say, but, saw the seriousness in her friends eyes.

"Okay, what's are plan." she asked with a nod.

Yuri sprinted from tree to tree even in between the knives being thrown by Mai. Yuri's reflexes enabled her to go untouched since she could hear them, see them and feel the wind next to her skin as they flew past. Just having her senses aware of them and the knowledge of the danger they posed was enough for her to be able to dodge the blades without thought. While Yuri ran along the forest floor Mai began to close in from the tree tops above, she littered the tree the other team hid behind with knives.

Batsu had managed enough strength to make clones of himself, these clones carried his durability with them. The group of three advanced toward the direct the knives were flying in from. They ran along the ground at high speeds, setting off traps as they went along. Being blown from one direction by explosions and hit from another kunai mines. Going as far as it could with the injuries sustained the last clone finally collapsed.

"He attempted to make a path, how stupid. He didn't get anywhere near us." said Mai confidently to herself as she watched the last clone vanish in smoke.

Nori watched with a smirk on his face saying "Interesting move, but, now you've spread your forces thin. What will you do now?

Yuri made a beeline for what she believed to be the hiding place for Ai's team. In a flash Yuri slid on her knees and turned to face whatever had created that light. Rai faced off against her, Yuri smiled to herself.

"Your a fast one aren't you? It's not very often I get to go against someone that can challenge my speed. See if you can keep up, okay? she said mockingly. Rai bolted towards Yuri, the two engaged in a high speed battle. The wind around them began to pick up as the leaves on the ground began to float from the velocity of there blows. It didn't take long for Rai to notice the difference between the two of them. Yuri dodged her every attack perfectly, but, was to slow to throw any blows of her own. Rai began to wonder about what this could mean. There was another watching the fight who also saw this flaw in perfection.

Mai began to make her way toward Yuri, to give projectile support but was blindsided by Ai. Mai rolled with the blow as she flipped from that branch to another, throwing knives to cover her escape.

Ai's sharingan had already seen this coming as she deftly moved in on Mai from an adjacent branch. Persisting on keeping her distance advantage Mai retreated, not before using "MULTI-CLONE SHADOW SHURIKEN, JUTSU!"