"What do you mean Sasuke's gone?" Kira called, all traces of sleep away from her system completely. Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, Kiba, and Naruto stood outside her front door staring at her expectantly. "I just saw him yesterday."
Shikamaru explained what he knew. That Tsunade had told him early this morning that sometime last night Sasuke had disappeared. That Orochimaru had kidnapped the guy.
"Shit...okay yeah let me grab my backpack." She rushed back inside towards her room she was quick to grab her bag and throw it over her shoulder, tying her pouch to her right leg. Running to the bathroom she grabbed another two handfuls of bandages and shoved them in her backpack.
The group of six ran towards the entrance, Naruto thinking he was the leader started yelling for the group to follow him. Shikamaru had crouched down drawing out our attack plan. Kiba didn't seem to like that Shikamaru was leader, he didn't think he had the ability to lead this team.
"Kiba get your head out your ass. Shikamaru's the leader. Deal with it." Kira snapped her head pounding, she crossed her arms over her chest, keeping her eyes outside the gate. There might be trouble getting Sasuke back.
Kiba growled glaring at the girl. She was seriously pissing him off. "Why're you here anyway? You didn't get to be Chunin either."
"Kira is an exceptional healer, should any of us get harmed it is her duty to heal us." Shikamaru spoke up keeping his eyes on his paper to continue drawing his diagram. Shikamaru was finished. What surprised her was that Shikamaru hasn't actually seen her heal anyone besides maybe Sakura a while back. For all she knew she couldn't do it, she couldn't live up to Shikamaru's expectations. Heck, even now she still wasn't one hundred percent. Shikamaru looked at each one of his team members.
"We'll go in single file. First, the most important forward guard will be you Kiba. You spent all year wandering the Land Of Fire with Akamaru, so if anyone knows the terrain, it's you. Plus, given your acute sense of smell we can track Sasuke by scent. You can even detect and disarm booby traps, where the enemy has touched them. Also, a single file formation is vulnerable to frontal attack your pairing with Akamaru makes you doubly effective."
To say Kiba was shocked at being put first at the front of the line was an understatement. Even after bitching that Shikamaru would probably make a horrible first leader, Shikamaru had let him go first. Kiba grinned at being acknowledged for his own smarts and talents.
"And then I, platoon leader come second. Whatever the situation. I can respond by ordering Kiba directly from behind. Meanwhile I can use hand signals to communicate with the rest of you." Shikamaru waited till he was sure everyone understood. "The center, third is you Naruto. You've got the best initiative. Son you're best placed at the heart. You can support either the front or back as need be. You're the hinge of our back up especially given your shadow doppelgangers." Naruto grinned excitedly to get this mission started with.
"Kira you're fourth behind Naruto. Being our healer we need you to be in the center of us all. You'll be able to heal both front and back when need be. Being in the heart with Naruto you'll be safe from a spontaneous attack." Kira nodded her head. She understood her position, she just hoped she'd be able to live up to the role of Team Healer.
"Choji, you're fifth up. You don't have speed, but you have the greatest striking power. Once Kiba, Naruto, Kira, and I launch a surprise attack, you take the stage and clobber the enemy with a fatal blow. In other words your job is the follow up strike." Choji gave a curt nod in understanding his position.
"Finally, bringing up the rear, is Neji. Rear guard is the toughest job of all. With your byakugan, you can ensure that our squad has no blind spots." Shikamaru pointed to the diagram on the ground for explanation. "Verify your target area. Kiba front. Me greater forward area. Naruto left, Kira center, Choji right, and Neji you use your Byakugan to cover the area behind us."
Neji fully understood his job though he didn't need the visual, he supposed that it was for the others. "I also need to know our current battery. Let me see all your ninja tools now. It'll just take three minutes." Everyone nodded in understanding. "Any questions."
There was none. In the background Lee smiled sadly wishing he would be better so that he himself could help out. Even with the wonderful Lady Tsunade, even she agreed that Lee would never be a ninja again. Breaking the boys heart. It didn't stop him from trying to get better, training his body to get better every day.
"If you're good so far, let me tell you the most important thing." When no one spoke up Shikamaru took that as a chance to continue. "It's not that Sasuke is my best friend. I don't even like him, really." That surprised his group. They ended up giving Shikamaru strange looks. "But like us, Sasuke is a shinobi of Konohagakure. He is our comrade! Therefore I will stake my life to rescue him. Thats the Konoha way. Beyond that even I can't complain when all your lives have been entrusted to me."
It didn't matter that he was Chunin or not. Shikamaru was nervous for everyone's sake. This was his first real mission and he didn't want any casualties. "Heh. You, well, now you're sounding like a Chunin." Choji grinned not bothering to speak up. He knew perfectly well that Shikamaru would do a great job for his first mission.
"All right. As soon as I check all our gear we're heading out. So out with it." Everyone pulled out their supplies for Shikamaru to look over. Everything sharp and pointy glistened in the sun. "All right. Lets get moving."
"Wait!" Sakura was back. She was staring at the group of six, she just looked so sad. She wasn't going to ask to come was she?
"Sakura?"
"Lady Hokage told me what happened. I'm sorry but I can't take you on this mission. Even you couldn't persuade Sasuke right?" Sakura was there last night? "Our only recourse is to persuade him with force. Sakura your role has ended."
Tears started to fall as she thought back to the night before. His words still stung her heart he didn't love her. He never loved her like she loved him
"You're so pathetic. Begging to come with me to exact my revenge. You could never make me happy, you're nothing to me."
"But I love you so much!" She sobbed hugging herself as he body heaved more sobs.
"Well stop. I will never love you." Sakura hiccuped so more about to hyperventilate. "I don't want anything to do with you."
"Sakura, does that mean you…" Sakura clenched her eyes tight hearing Naruto's voice. Kira stood closest towards the entrance, her eyes never leaving Sakura's form. A sense of guilt overcame her. Sakura loved Sasuke with all her heart and she was alone with the boy, she let him kiss her.
Why didn't she tell him last night that she didn't feel the same way, she tried but not that hard. What was going on with her? Kira knew she didn't have any romantic feelings towards Sasuke. When he kissed her she felt nothing. She didn't get tingles she never felt the sparks you hear in stories. It was just nothing. So why hadn't she pushed him away and told him off?
Sakura started to sob unconditionally now. "Naruto, this is my wish of a lifetime." Sakura's fat tears dripped down her soft skin down her cheeks and onto the ground, wetting the dirt. "Please...Please bring Sasuke back…" she sobbed loudly, not caring if she might have made a scene.
All the boys besides Naruto avoided looking at the girl, unable to figure out how to handle a crying girl. "I couldn't do it!" Sakura continued sniffling the snot back in her nose. "I couldn't stop him. So now, now the only person who can stop him...save him, is you." She sniffled again gasping for breath. She was about to hyperventilate again. "Just you Naruto."
Naruto wasn't sure what to do, he felt his heart shatter. Realizing that Sakura would never love him, he could see the pain in her eyes and knew he couldn't stand it so yes. Yes he would go out of his way to make her happy again. His eyes glanced over to Kira. Was this how she felt? Hiding her feelings and pretending it was okay when on the inside you're just feeling like absolute shit?
Putting on a face smile to show Sakura everything would be okay. Naruto grinned trying his best to hide his pain."Sakura, you sure do care about Sasuke." Sakura sniffled opening her eyes to state at the boy she took for granted so many times. "I know what you're going through now. I know all too well."
Sakura held herself falling into a ball. She was barely holding herself up, she was about to fall to her knees. "Naruto...thank you."
"It's okay. I'll bring back Sasuke for sure!" The group of six shot walked through the gate and jumped in the trees. In a single file line everyone ran at full speed. It wasn't long till Kiba announced that there was blood in the air.
"Their scent were joined by two new traces but now the original five are leaving the blood zone! What do we do?" Kiba yelled back to Shikamaru.
"He has escorts." Shikamaru cursed knowing that it could have happened he just never expected it to happen though.
"Lets just catch up to Sasuke!" Naruto yelled forward to Shikamaru hoping the six of them could go after Sasuke still.
"Shut up Naruto! You're not in charge here. That's up to Shikamaru to decide." Kiba snarled turning his head back to glare at Naruto.
Shikamaru sighed at the tough dilemma. "If there's the smell of blood, that means there was a fight. I suppose we might turn up something by investigating but we can't just tear in half cocked. We'll have to switch gears to scout mode and creep in at ground level." Shikamaru suggested loud enough for everyone to hear.
Neji spoke up from the back. "And while we're playing detective Sasuke will have crossed the border."
"So what're we doing, then?" Naruto yelled staring at the back of Shikamaru's head.
Shikamaru grumbled thinking over what was best to do. It only took him a moment before deciding. "Fine! We'll trail Sasuke!" Shikamaru hollard for everyone to hear. Neji, Choji, and Kira nodded. Kira was glad they were going to go after Sasuke instead of investigate.
"All right! Way to go man!" Naruto exclaimed glad that things were going his way.
"Listen, they've already fought once. That means they'll be even more guarded. They'd clearly consider the possibility that they're being tailed by an elite tracking unit. Chances are they've laid traps and are lying in wait."
Traps? Oh great now they had to look even more around to make sure they didn't get themselves killed. "So put all your senses on alert. And we'll find them before they spring a mine at us. And if you hit on any unusual signs don't avoid it, interpret it!"
Naruto was just filled with energy, he could barely contain it, he'd bring Sasuke back, even if he was kicking and screaming. "When we find 'em. I'll use my new technique and smash 'em to jelly!" Naruto warned growling to himself. Those bastards were going to pay.
Thats right. Naruto learned the Rasengan. He had mastered the technique and she still couldn't produce a dragon's head in the flames. Damn. Naruto was incredibly impressive. "Hey! This place reeks of the enemy!" Kiba called from the front. Shikamaru gave the hand signals to get everyone to stop.
The six all landed and stilled on a thick tree branch. Some of us breathing heavier than others. "Look up there carefully." Shikamaru instructed. Pasted on the tree was a letter bomb.
"A letter bomb. I sense five more, they're forming a perimeter barrier." Neji explained, this wasn't good at all. We really don't have a plan to get Sasuke back besides fight the kidnappers.
"Perimeter barrier?"
"It's a kind of trap Ninjutsu. A booby trap ninjutsu is triggered when an enemy enters a specified area. It's a sort of time lag snare. It's a pretty advanced ninjutsu at least according to a book my dad once forced on me."
This could set us back and let Sasuke get away easier. "Great. Then we'd better make a detour." Shikamaru agreed with Kiba. So the six of them started walking around the perimeter barrier keeping a watchful eye on the ground for any other traps.
There was traps everywhere. Though it seemed whoever Sasuke was with didn't have time to to hide them well enough. "Hey Naruto, look out for the wire!" Kiba shot back. Naruto had squatted down to check out the trip wire.
Naruto missed the first wire but almost got the second wire hidden underneath the first one. Shikamaru had quickly used his Shadow manipulation jutsu to stop Naruto from stepping on the wire.
"The first wire reflects the light so it's easy to notice, but the second one if frosted green making it harder to see. It's double jeopardy." Shikamaru explained staring at the wire. Neji was quick to activate his Byakugan while the rest of the group finished Shikamaru's train of thought.
"If they had the time to set down a second trap over the frist that must mean they're resting…" Kira muttered glancing at Shikamaru. He nodded. "They could also be wounded." Shikamaru muttered holding his chin in thought.
"Or it could be a trick." Kiba spoke up understanding what Shikamaru was thinking. Naruto and Choji were anxious.
"Got them." Neji smirked. He quickly explained how they were resting. The news made Naruto excited, itching for a fight.
"Yee Haw!" Naruto suddenly shouted "I'm gonna bring Sasuke back for sure!"
"Sorry Naruto, it's my turn to show off my latest technique." Kiba shot back grinning like a madman. Sasuke was close.
Kira didn't care who would be the one to bring Sasuke back. Kicking and screaming, on the brink of death, willingly would be nice but she doubted that would happen.