Ink's Notes:

[MUFFLED SCREAMS IN THE DISTANCE] I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I WILL EXPLAIN AFTER THE CHAPTER AAAAAAAAAAA

Krazyfanfiction1: I... I have no idea. That is a question for SCIENCE! *dons science goggles*

Allykrau: We'll have to find out when the time approaches! ...who knows how long it'll take.

Freedom its2l8: With the power of FRIENDSHIP!

Cyricist001: Yeah that's one of the reasons it got harder for me to read Naruto

Spear: Thank you! And here is upoot.

The Keeper of Worlds: Looking back on it, yeah, it did sorta happen real fast. I was trying to show that Vivi's emotions and words hit Karin hard, though probably went about it too fast. *shrug*

XxFire-PhoenixxX: It's okay, sweetie :3

Fairy of the Friz: Thank you~!

Guest: Hurrah indeed!

Skipper917: She got the nakama beaten into her.

Chapter Thirty

Suigetsu continued to try and keep out of the bear's range, dodging swipe after swipe, kick after kick, claw after claw. He wasn't sure how a bear of all things was able to do it, but the bear could hit him and hurt him, no matter how much he manipulated his own body into a liquid state to try and avoid getting hit in the first place.

Also, the bear was wearing a boiler suit for some reason. Bears didn't do that.

The bear back flipped and landed a few feet away, balancing on one foot and lifting his arms in a combat stance that vaguely reminded Suigetsu of a crane. "I won't let you hurt my friends!" he declared, slamming his raised foot into the ground to push off of it in order to generate a boost in speed and charge at Suigetsu again.

And talking, Suigetsu mentally revised his earlier train of thought as he brought his sword in front of himself to block the bear's strike, the mere force behind the blow pushing him backwards a few feet. He paused a moment as he processed this new information, then stared at the bear incredulously. "How the hell is a bear able to talk and fight!?" he barked at the offending creature.

The bear blinked a few times, then immediately stood straight and bowed deeply. "I'm sorry," he apologized, and Suigetsu swore he could see the depression rolling off of the bear in waves.

Suigetsu felt his head throbbing in frustration. "You apologize way too easily!" he snapped. "Weren't we fighting just a second ago!? Don't apologize to your opponent!"

"Ah. You have a point," the bear realized, hitting his palm with his paw, then launched himself at Suigetstu again. Suigetsu mentally cursed himself for reminding the bear that they were fighting, especially since he'd been losing (he still didn't know how that was happening), and continued to block the bear's blows with his sword, fearing for what would happen if he connected with his body.

It happened fast, almost too fast for him to keep track of. Suigetsu made some distance between them and went on the offensive, bringing the blade down in a vertical slash. The bear dodged to the right, then hit Suigetsu's wrist with his palm. This time, the attack broke through his wrist as his hand became water and slid off of the sword, and the bear reacted by grabbing the blade and hurling it towards a tree in the area that Tashigi was fighting that girl who was apparently called Sakura. Suigetsu was about to call out a warning when both Tashigi and Sakura instinctively ducked under the blade, allowing it to embed itself into a tree somewhere off to their side. He didn't have much chance to do anything else when the bear planted a firm kick into Suigetsu's face, and he was sent tumbling several feet backwards, coming to a halt flat on his face. He pushed himself up on his arms, only to yelp and push himself backwards in shock as the bear slammed his foot down where his head had been only minutes ago.

"Che-" Suigetsu adjusted his stance now that his sword was temporarily unavailable, bringing his hands up. He began going through hand signs as quickly as he could, only to have his hands kicked then grabbed by the bear.

"No you don't! I've seen what that weird sign language does!" the bear growled, bringing Suigetsu's hands down into the ground with a mighty shove and an audible crack. He screamed in pain, and for a moment he felt the eyes of several people on the battlefield fall on his fight before something brought their focus back to where it should be. Suigetsu forced his hands into a more liquefied state to attempt to restore them to their normal state, but with that keeping him busy he was unable to block the barrage of kicks that the bear released upon him. He went tumbling back, and he swore he saw a flash of red before his face hit the ground again.

Suigetsu felt himself being lifted by the back of the shirt and being sat on the ground. Realizing what the flash of red he'd seen was, he braced himself for a beating courtesy of Karin, so naturally he was surprised when she simply got onto her knees next to him. She reached for his hands and he quickly pulled away, only to receive a scolding from her telling him to hold still. He was reluctant at first, of course, but when she simply placed his hands in her lap and began working on healing them, he slowly relaxed. Suigetsu opened his mouth to ask why the attack had stopped when he picked up on the conversation that had just begun a few feet away.

"It's okay, Bepo!" The blue haired woman who'd been fighting Karin not too long ago was standing between them, arms outstretched, one hand bleeding, and the bear had stopped attacking on account of one of his allies being in the way. "These guys aren't bad people. Misguided, maybe, but they're not bad. They're like pirates who are following the wrong Captain."

Bepo didn't seem too sure about that, but he seemed to realize that she wasn't moving anytime soon, so he relaxed his stance as Karin finished healing Suigetsu's hands. "Vivi," Karin called to the blue haired woman, who looked over at her. "We should probably stop Jugo and…" She motioned for a name, and Vivi provided one for her. "…Perona next, then Tashigi and Sakura before we even think about getting involved in Sasuke's fight." Suigestu noticed the usual smitten tone wasn't there when Karin said Sasuke's name, and he found himself wondering just what the heck she and Vivi had talked about during their fight.

Vivi nodded, then looked back at Bepo. "Bepo, Perona seems to like you. Do you think you can get her to stop while the rest of us take care of… Jugo, right?" Karin nodded.

Bepo slowly nodded. "I'll do what I can, but-" he slumped over apologetically, "I'm sorry in advance if I can't get her to stop…"

Vivi began encouraging the bear while Karin helped Suigetsu to his feet. "Well?" he pressed, and Karin gave him a questioning look. "Why aren't you using your usual tone when you talk about Sasuke?"

Karin jabbed him in the forehead, almost offended by his question. "There's some things I need to think about is all," she huffed, before taking long strides towards where Jugo and Perona were facing off. Vivi, her pet duck, and Bepo quickly followed her.

Suigetsu sighed and lifted his arms in a shrug. With an audible groan, he began moving to catch up to the others with a light jog. For some reason, he had no idea why, they had a fight to stop.

Okay, so as promised, I'm gonna explain exactly where the fluff I've been for like a month.

...sick is the easiest way to put it, I guess. And I know I use that as an excuse a lot, but that's because my immune system is terrible and so I get sick very, very often. It's pretty emotionally draining, and so some days I struggle to get anything done, and I am really bad at prioritizing things so I haven't actually worked on this for a while, and it took me smacking myself and just sitting down to write to actually get this out to you guys.

Sorry for the delay, I'll try not to make it such a long wait next time.

-Ink