"Hello." Someone else speaking

"Hello." Kyuubi speaking.

"Hello." Thoughts

"Hello." Kyuubi thoughts

Chapter 19

Hinata who was building up the fire in their little shelter looked at Yumi who was packing her gear.

"Are you sure you want to leave now?" asked Hinata. "You're hurt you should rest a little bit." Yumi smiled at the hyuga before shaking her head.

"I have to go…" said Yumi. "My part is over here. My job is to help you with the artifact and since you have it already I have to leave. Plus what would the examiners say if they see you and Akira with an unknown ninja. You could be disqualified which would make me feel guilty. Be safe Hinata…" Hinata nodded before hugging the Yumi surprising the girl greatly. "Take care of Akira and I'm sure Naruto-kun is fine…"

"Thank you." Said Hinata smiling. "Please travel safely." Yumi nodded and casted one last look at Akira who was sleeping before diving into the water. "Naruto-kun… Where are you?" She son heard a little bit of groaning and saw Akira who was beginning to sit up. "How are you feeling?"

"Better thanks…" said Akira. "Something isn't right though…" He lifted his palm and began to generate black chakra on his hand when suddenly it began to appear and disappear until it just all stopped at once. "Great… What's wrong with my chakra? I can't even make a death dealer."

"The poison was in your body for so long that it affected your chakra control…" said Hinata. "I managed to save your life but I didn't arrive soon enough to prevent all of it damaging effects…"

"How long am I supposed to be like this?" asked Akira.

"A day, two at the most." Said Hinata.

"What day is it?"

"You've been asleep for a whole day so its day four." Said Hinata. "And Naruto-kun still isn't back." Hinata began to bite on her fingers before Akira gently took hold of her wrist.

"I'm sure he's fine…" said Akira. "I can move around so let's go look for him okay?" Hinata as much as she wanted the teenager to stay nodded thinking that her boyfriend could be in more danger and she would need the help if she ran into any jounin's.

Scene change -------------------

Ino who had become quite the expert in swords screamed in rage swinging her blade right the head of a jounin who dodged it easily and kicked her back making her cry out in pain as she hit a tree. Sakura on the other hand was punching and kicking another jounin who kept turning into water indicating that he was using mizu bunshin's. Sakura was beginning to get angry and lifted a tree up with her new found strength that Tsunade had taught her and began to swing it around killing several bunshin's at a time.

"Sakura behind you!" screamed Ino who had just kicked her opponent and back flipped away from several kunai's that struck the ground.

The pink haired girl turned around to see the real mist ninja headed right for her ready to make a fatal hit with his kunai! But suddenly a huge green ball came out and hit the jounin head on sending him right into a tree.

"Thank's Choji!" said Sakura.

She looked over in Ino's directiong to see that the girl had lost one of her swords and was swinging skillfully at the last jounin who was defending her attacks with his kunai. Ino quickly faked a hit to the right making the mist ninja fall for her trap by moving to the right as if he was going to block her sword. Ino quickly launched herself at the man stabbing him in the chest but she was soon soaked in water when the mist ninja dissapeared!

"Suiton Suikoudan no jutsu! (Water shark Blast technique)" shouted the man making Ino turn around in surprise and shock. A huge shark began to form from a pond near where they two were fighting making Ino gasp.

A huge shark soon appeared and headed right for the girl! Choji and Sakura were running towards her at full speed when a figure soon appeared right in front of them and kicked them both back. There was soon an ear piercing scream of pain. Choji looked up in horror and saw that Ino was begin forced to a tree pinned by a shark that was hitting her entire body.

"Ino!" shouted Choji. He began to get up when 2 more mist ninja's blocked his path. "Get the hell out of my way! Baika no jutsu!" (Multi size no jutsu.)

Choji soon grew in size and began to roll towards Ino to help her with Sakura running right behind him. The mist ninja's knew better to stand in front of Choji so all three ninja's jumped away to regroup.

"Ino!" asked Sakura franticly. She slowly lifted Ino's head to see the girl unconscious with several wounds from the powerful water jutsu. Choji was furious now and looked directly at the 3 jounin's who were smiling at him.

"What's wrong fat ass?" asked the jounin that had knocked out Ino in the first place. "Never seen a fallen comrade before?"

"You made a huge mistake…" said Choji dangerously. Choji put his hand in his back pouch and took out a vile that had three pills in it. He quickly took out the green spinach pill and ate it before covering himself with several chains of kunai's. "Baika no jutsu! (Multi size technique) Nikudan Hari Sensha!" (Spiked human cannon ball).

The ninja's were surprised to see a huge spiked green ball headed right for them at amazing speed! Two mist ninja's jumped away just in time but the ninja who had attacked Ino was struck head on cutting him in several areas knocking him unconscious. One of the ninja's cursed under his breath and was about to land on a branch when he saw a pink haired girl already waiting for him with her fist cocked back! Sakura screamed in rage before slamming her fist right into the jaw of her opponent sending him flying into the air and then crashed head first on the dirt. Sakura was about to jump down to help Choji who was rolling around in circles trying to hit his opponent when she saw something shine on the ground taking a closer look her eyes widened in fear.

"Choji stop!" screamed Sakura. But it was too late. Sakura saw under several pieces of grass and leaves there were several explosive notes! Choji soon ran over several of them blowing him into the air! "Choji!"

She quickly looked up at the now normal sized Choji who was in the air. Sakura quickly jumped into the air to catch her comrade when she was struck in the stomach by the last mist nin making her spit out a little blood. The pink haired chuunin quickly flipped around and attempted to kick the man but failed and the result was 2 more punches to the stomach and a hard kick to the chin making her fall to the floor. The mist ninja was about to make a run for her once again when he heard a booming voice.

"Bubun Baika no jutsu! (Partial multi size no jutsu) Arm!"

A huge arm was headed right for the ninja making him quickly jump out of the way just as the hand struck the ground making a huge crater. The ninja jumped into the air once again and saw that Choji had recovered from the explosion.

"I can't believe that kid recovered so quickly from all of those explosion tags…" thought the mist ninja.

The mist nin then saw Choji running towards him making him take out 2 kunai's before planting them into the teenagers arms making him scream out in pain. The mist nin then picked up Choji and threw the teenager at Sakura who was running up to him from behind. Sakura slowly got up making her wince in pain. She quickly saw that her leg was sprained when Choji fell onto it. With a quick healing jutsu she healed her ankle just enough for her to move and with that done she quuickly picked up Choji, and ran away from the mist ninja who smiled.

"That cold bitch…" thought the mist ninja. He looked over at the unconscious Ino. "Left her own team mate behind… Even though she saved the stronger team mate its still a cold move…"

The last mist ninja was making his way towards Ino to take her prisoner when the girl was suddenly replaced by a log!

"What the hell!" shouted the mist nin. "That damn girl…" The man suddenly jumped into the trees to track down his victims.

In a small clearing Sakura was catching her breath looking at her two team mates that she barely rescued. Sakura had already rescued Ino long ago and distracted the mist nin with a bunshin and then after her team mate was safe she went back for Choji transforming a log into Ino to not raise any suspicion. Sakura began to see Ino stir and crawled up to her friend.

"Ino?" asked Sakura softly healing the girl's wounds.

"Sakura?" replied Ino weakly. "What happened!" Ino panicked when she saw Choji who was hurt and unconscious.

"We got beat up badly…" said Sakura.

"Your about to get beat up some more if you don't come peacefully!" shouted a voice in the trees. The mist ninja from before suddenly appeared right before them with a kunai in his hand.

"We can take him together Sakura…" said Ino reaching for her sword but found out that her sheath's were empty. "Crap…"

"Hahaha. You think you could beat me even if you had those stupid things!" laughed the mist ninja.

The ninja then appeared next to both girls and kicked them apart making both of them hit a tree each. The mist ninja then struck Ino in the back of the neck knocking her unconscious and was about to jump away when Sakura caught his foot and slammed him onto the ground making him let go of Ino. Sakura tried to kick him while he was on the floor but the mist nin caught her kick and tripped her. He then picked her up and threw her a few feet away making her land on the dirt with a painful cry.

"Give up girl it's over!" shouted the man running towards her with a kunai.

Sakura tried to get up but fell down painfully closing her eyes. There was suddenly a grunt in front of her making the pink haired girl open her eyes in surprise. Right in front of her was Naruto's friend who was pushing the jounin back!

"Sakura-san…" said a quiet voice. Sakura slowly turned around to see Hinata who was beginning to heal the girl's wounds. "Are you alright?" Sakura nodded and looked back at Naruto's friend who had just kicked the mist ninja into a tree making it crack.

"Who the hell are you guys!" shouted the mist ninja. "I guess I'll have to leave you all for now…" he said. The mist ninja tried to run away when he was kicked down by the boy he was fighting a few moments ago. "What! How did you get up there so fast!" The mist ninja then looked down to see that the boy was still in the same place where he had just fought him! "Kage bunshin!" The man didn't have time to respond when a pair of strong arms grabbed him followed by booming voice in the air.

"Suiton Daibakufu no jutsu!" (Water explosion skill). Shouted Akira. Soon a huge cyclone came right out of the pond and struck the mist ninja head on making him yell in pain and drop to the floor unconscious.

Akira suddenly fell down panting making Hinata run up to him and put her hand softly on his back.

"What's wrong?" the hyuga asked.

"I don't know… That jutsu just now just totally took a huge amount of chakra…" said Akira trying to catch his breath.

"The poison must still be effecting your chakra control so you're putting an unnecessary amount of chakra into your jutsu's."

"Hinata-chan?" asked Sakura. "How did you find us? And where's Naruto?"

Hinata's head dropped hearing her boyfriend's name.

"We were looking for Naruto because he got separated from our group." Said Akira. "We were passing by and Hinata-chan used her blood limit to explore that area and saw your team so we came to lend you a hand."

"Thank you…" said Sakura. Hinata was looking around with her Byakugan.

"More patrols are coming!" said Hinata. "We have to get out of here!"

Akira ran over to Choji and picked the teenager up and began to run towards their shelter that was under water. Akira's earth bunshin picked up Ino and followed Hinata who was helping Sakura.

"Take a deep breath." Said Hinata. Akira soon made 2 water bunshin's that covered the head's of Ino and Choji who were still unconscious before diving into the water. Sakura took a deep breath before jumping in with Hinata who helped the pink haired chuunin get into the cave.

"Wow this is a crazy hideout." Whispered Sakura who saw the size of the cave. "Have you been attacked here yet?" Hinata shook her head. "Lucky you… So far all of the shelters we found we were attacked about half an hour after we settled in. She then looked at Akira who was making Ino and Choji comfortable so that they could rest.

"I'm going to go out and scout some more Hinata-chan I think my chakra has returned to normal." Said Akira. He walked over to the Hyuga and put his hand on her shoulder while smiling. "Don't worry. I'll find something…" The Hyuga gave him a small smile while nodding. "Oh and Sakura… I believe these are yours…" Akira held out 3 crests that had the mist symbol on it.

Sakura took it gratefully and handed one to Hinata.

"You guys earned this one…" said Sakura. Hinata took the item and nodded at the girl.

"You should get some sleep. I should be back soon." Said Akira before jumping into the pond of water.

About an hour later Akira stopped on a branch to rest when he caught a strange smell. He quickly leapt over another branch and pulled back some leaves to see 6 bodies lying on the floor mutilated making him wince.

"What a barbaric way to fight…" whispered Akira before jumping off once again.

He soon came across a huge wall and jumped on top of a tree to get a better look and saw small building that was being guarded by 4 jounin's. Akira quickly jumped onto the ground and then sunk into it making his way towards the jounin's.

"Hey how many teams are left now?" asked a jounin.

"Intelligence says that there are 15 teams left out of 45." Said one ninja. "Pretty easy… Considering we have 10 of the 20 artifacts…"

"Wow didn't think that the teams would kill each other off so quickly."

"What the hell! 15 teams left!" thought Akira. "That's insane… It's only the end of the 4th day!"

"Oh hey!" said one mist ninja excitingly. "Did you hear! A ninja from Konoha beat up the Uchiha from the fire country! I heard it took the copy ninja and 4 mist ninja's to take him out even though the kid was already messed up and we lost 3 ninja's too!"

"Wait a minute… The ninja that has the Kyuubi sealed into him!" said his partner. "I thought he died… Hmmm that's interesting. Who's guarding the kid?"

"I heard it was the copy ninja who use to be the boys teacher, along with 3 other mist ninja's…"

"Damnit…" cursed Akira. "This isn't good…"

Thank you all for your reviews and sorry chapters are taking a little longer to come up. I'm really grateful that you people have stuck with me. And I'll try to add some fluff when I can.