Author's Note: Well here it is, the next chapter! And it's a monster too, much longer than even I expected. Sorry about the wait between updates, I'm currently preparing to move out of the country and this requires much attention if I wish to do so without getting deported right back to the USA. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, especially Shadowmaster, glad you enjoy it. Ino's just made herself a very dangerous enemy and Shikamaru has launched his attack, but will it be enough? Will Shino and Ino leave Kumogakure alive? Read on, then review!

Disclaimer: If Naruto was mine I'd have to figure out some way to pack it, and I don't think I have that many moving boxes.

Blood in the Water

"The dust has only just begun to form. Crop circles in the carpet, sinking feeling. Spin me round again and rub my eyes. This can't be happening." – 'Hide and Seek' by Imogen Heap.

The kikai mushi brought Shino news of a large chakra surge in the northwestern corridor of Kumogakure several seconds before he, too, sensed the disturbance.

During their search, the insects had found very little else of note, save for several empty syringes they had retrieved from what appeared to be a hastily constructed lab in the business district. Handling the discarded needles carefully Shino had been able to determine that they had, at one point, held the hormone serum. Apparently, one way to administer the serum was through injection. Shino had pocketed one syringe to show to Shikamaru, the Nara would want to examine it for himself. Shino didn't believe for a second that this method could have been used on his father. Aburame Shibi would not allow enemy nin close enough to his person to administer the serum in such a way. There had to be a secondary course of infection.

Apart from finding that the village was largely empty of life, Shino and his bugs had discovered little useful information. Glancing down at the still form of his teammate he had wondered how she was faring in the childish guise she'd affected. Instructing the kikai mushi to begin a sweep of the surrounding fields and outbuildings, Shino eyed the darkened sky. They had several hours until dawn. Enough time to disappear without a trace, as long as Ino wrapped up her scouting soon.

It was at this moment that a small group of his insects had arrived, frenzied with information, and the horizon had nearly exploded with chakra.

Shino straightened, instantly on alert. He was more chakra sensitive than others due to a lifetime of symbiosis with the kikai mushi, but only on rare occasions had he felt a surge of this size. Giving orders with terse intensity, he sent several miniature squadrons of insects careening towards what he was assuming was a battlefield. Rolling sleeves back further, he prepared himself for attack. Confident he could handle whatever was thrown at him, Shino again eyed the night sky.

He hoped his teammate hadn't provoked this.

Reports began to filter back: the chakra was Ino's, but not solely. Mixed with her violet-tinted chakra was an energy signature darker, and of higher frequency, than any he had previously encountered. The bugs were excited, ravenous almost, their small brains driven nearly over the edge by the presence of such a raw power source. Exerting harsher control Shino began calling them back, he knew what he needed to know.

So much for not being seen, it seemed.

Ino had met with the enemy and had found it necessary to engage in an attack of intensity he had been unaware she was capable of. Shikamaru's voice was in his head, replaying from their initial group meeting. "Ino has discovered a new family technique: Atama Musubu. We may have to utilize this."

So this was the 'new technique' of which Shikamaru had spoken. They'd been given a short briefing on the characteristics of Atama Musubu, but Shino was disappointed he hadn't asked for more information on it when he'd had the chance. Asides from the knowledge that Ino could bind her victims within their own memories, he had very little to work with. Hadn't Shikamaru said it could only be launched through shintenshin? She wouldn't have used it on the child…would she? Shino gathered his insects to him, crouching down to examine the body of the girl that lay at his feet.

This was not the first time he'd been put in charge of Ino's body while she was using shintenshin. His initial impression of the jutsu was negative. He considered any technique that left its user's body in such a wholly vulnerable position to be inconvenient at the very least. The fact that it also held a high failure rate did nothing to recommend its usage in his eyes. However, his feelings on the subject had changed slightly after witnessing Ino's work with her father the other night, and watching her recruit the young girl for her spy mission had also seemed a good move…at the time.

Now though, as he felt the distant chakra eruption lessen, Shino was more apt to second-guess his earlier judgment.

There was no good way to measure Ino's status from her motionless form. As always, when under the jutsu, she looked dead. A quick check revealed that she still had a pulse, but not much else. Shino considered moving her body to another location but decided against it. He did not have as much experience with shintenshin as Shikamaru and Chouji and was in no position to jeopardize Ino's mental return unless the action became absolutely necessary.

He would rather not have to haul a corpse all the way back to Konoha.

Frustrated at his inability to act and distracted by the reports of his returning bugs, Shino frowned. The chakra, they told him, was emanating from a small house on a dark side-street. Inside, they could vaguely determine the forms of three or four people, but the sheer intensity of the chakra blast was such they could not get closer without risking severe damage. Shino thought about overriding their flight instinct but held off. If Ino, in the form of a small child, needed rescue or he was required to flee, he would need his full arsenal intact. Shino ground his molars together, there was nothing he hated more than missing a fight.

What was Ino doing? More importantly, who was her opponent?

A dark sliver of motion caught his attention and he glanced down, becoming, if possible, more on edge. Blood seeped from the left side of Ino's mouth, a quick check revealed that the crimson liquid was bubbling up from her throat. There was no sign of outer damage that could produce such a response, an internal injury? This blood was from a wound she had received while in shintenshin, he'd seen such things happen to the girl before. Thinking quickly, Shino elevated her head, propping Ino against a nearby tree. The liquid continued to seep down her chin, soaking the front of her shirt.

He wondered if the form Ino was in could withstand such abuse for long.

Tense minutes passed, with no further action from the street in question. No one moved, at least not in sight of the kikai mushi, whom Shino had directed to monitor the house from a safe distance. Shino was about to order them into the structure when the girl at his feet came to life.

Choking on the blood in her mouth, Ino tilted her head to the side, spitting messily. He was at her side instantly, "Can you talk?" He asked, "That was Atama Musubu. Who did you use it on?"

"U…Uchiha Itachi." She gasped, head lolling. Shino stared at her in disbelief, he couldn't have heard her right.

"Ino, this is important. Who did you attack?"

"Itachi." She coughed, purple shirt front further darkening with her blood. "I'm sure. I saw him…talked…"

Her strength was failing her and, inwardly cursing himself for not doing so sooner, Shino forced her to take several of the emergency pills Sakura had provided. The effect was immediate, for she stopped spitting blood and began breathing easier. "You're sure?"

"I'd bet my life on it." Neither of them seemed to catch the irony in her words. As her pain became more manageable Ino became more agitated. "We have to leave here, now."

Shino was not one to run from a fight, usually refused to in fact, but he knew true bone-deep fear when he heard it. He also knew that there was no way in hell that someone of Ino's ranking was capable of killing, or even subduing Uchiha Itachi, if that was indeed who she had encountered. And although he was qualified to fight and defeat many people, Uchiha Itachi was not one of them. The time had come to leave Kumogakure.

Fast.

"Can you run?" Ino nodded, struggling to her feet without assistance, but a quick analysis of her chakra levels revealed otherwise. She was running on empty, which was not surprising considering the amount of energy she had expended only moments before. "Don't lie." He rebuked her, irritated that she would let her pride endanger them. Walking around in front of her he leaned over. "Grab on." Ino's arms twined around his neck, his arms under her legs, and they were off.

"You used Atama Musubu." He said. "Tell me what happened, start from the beginning." Speaking quickly, Ino recapped her movements from the moment she had gone beyond his sight-line. Listening, Shino regretted not sending bugs to monitor her, as well as not keeping the two of them together, but hindsight would not help them much at this point.

He could only hope to control the situation from here.

As Ino began to recount her experience in Tsukuyomi Shino nearly lost his balance, she had been so close to disaster, did she even realize? What were the chances of the events she was describing even happening? Uchiha Itachi was not one whom shinobi faced off with and survived to tell the tale. Dumb luck was all that had brought Ino here. Dumb luck and Uchiha having no way of anticipating there being a Yamanaka presence within the child.

"You managed to perform Atama Musubu perfectly your first try?" He asked as her words trailed off. "He's trapped in his own mind?"

"No." He could feel her shake her head in the negative. "There wasn't a chance, I had to…modify it a bit."

Lovely, she'd taken a new, unstable technique and modified the format before ever doing it correctly. "Modify it how?" Atama Musubu had huge drawbacks, even when used correctly, as so many of the Yamanaka techniques did. There was something vaguely masochistic about their jutsus in Shino's opinion. Then again, allowing bugs to live in your body was hardly pleasant business.

Ino's grip around his shoulders was steady, but without Sakura's medicine they would have been in deep trouble. Not that their current situation would be considered great, even with her in perfect health. He knew Ino had combat-medic training, hopefully she would be able to patch herself up further when they had a chance to stop

"I wasn't in his mind." She checked behind them for pursuit. "We met in Miyuki's mind. Tsukuyomi is genjutsu, I wasn't facing his full mental form, only the portion he inserted into the illusion. There was quite a bit of conscious control there, but not the latent parts. There was no way for me to access his memories."

"And that means?"

"I didn't have full control over him." She admitted, "But he didn't have any way to counter me, so I performed Atama Musubu on those mental sectors he'd used in Tsukuyomi."

"What did you bind him with if you had no access to his memories?"

She hesitated, but Shino wasn't sure why. "I bound him with Miyuki's memories." She said finally.

"How effective is that?" He couldn't imagine a child's memories were very strong, especially not in one so young.

"I'm not sure." She checked behind them once again. "Since they aren't his thoughts I can't imagine he'd have much trouble casting them off, but I tried to choose ones that would be difficult for him to grasp. Like fear and joy. I went for memories with intense emotional feedback."

Shino's brain raced, "Did he know who you were?" Perhaps, if they were lucky, Uchiha wouldn't know who'd tracked him down. He was several years older than either of them. There was a chance, however slim, that he might not have recognized Ino. That could provide them with a few more minutes of running time.

Except that Ino was the spitting image of her father and shintenshin was a rare jutsu, hard to confuse with anything else.

Shit.

"He knew I was a Yamanaka and specifically told me he was coming after Konoha." Ino sighed. "Atama Musubu must have worked a little, they aren't following yet."

"How many?" The bugs had said three or four, counting Ino. Since they had now determined their opponents were Akatsuki, Shino could be fairly certain they were dealing with one other person, since the mercenary group most commonly traveled in units of two.

"One more, I don't know who." She confirmed his guess. Shino readjusted his grip on the kunoichi and leaped from the ground into the tree tops. There were restless murmurs coming from the mushi, in the village something was stirring. Ino continued, oblivious, her senses dulled by the injury. "The partner is the one who stabbed me…stabbed Miyuki."

"Stabbed? You had no outer wounds." It would explain her blood loss though.

"He stabbed me as I was performing the shintenshin release. I escaped the worst of it."

So her consciousness had exited the body in time to avoid the outer injury, but not the inner. Again, it came down to luck. So far the cards were falling in their favor, but it would be a naïve assessment to expect such conditions to hold. Ino's fight had been a close call, both knew it, but neither remarked on it.

They had been well-trained to ignore their own mortality.

"The girl?" Shino asked, the drone of the kikai mushi was heightening, as was the tension in his shoulders. Two paths of action lay before them, and it was Shino's job to determine down which they would proceed. Normally he would tend towards the option which offered the best outcome, but the choice was not so simple.

At this point, both roads where they lay sketched out in his mind, were shrouded in the darkness of uncertainty.

In Shino's experience, not far behind uncertainty was failure.

"She's…Miyuki is dead."

He wondered why Ino insisted on using the little girl's name. Her sentimentality would only haunt her later. Irritation bubbled up within Shino, but he pushed it back down, there was no use picking a fight. "Don't think about it." He told her, he needed Ino focused. A panicked buzzing reached his ears and he skidded to a halt, letting go of the girl. "We're being followed."

She had been on the edge of a scorching rebuke about his comment regarding the dead girl, he could tell, but his announcement banished it from her mind. "Followed? Already?!"

"Heal yourself." He instructed her, feeling the small chakra flare as she dug into her reserves to manage what Sakura's pills had not. Holding both hands out parallel to the ground, he summoned the fastest of his mushi. Leaning close to their comforting mass he began soft whispered instructions, entrusting them with all he and Ino had discovered.

"You're sending the bugs." Ino said, her tone sharp, aware, suspicious. "Why? We can still make it back to Konoha."

"Nara needs this information faster than we can bring it to him." With a last admonishment Shino released the kikai mushi to the sky. "Konoha has to prepare for what is coming and we will buy them time."

"But the bugs, Shikamaru will think..."

"Nara will think what he needs to think." Shino estimated they had fifteen minutes before the Uchiha and his companion found them. Ino was back on her feet, she looked steadier than before. Her energy levels were still low though, she needed sleep, but they had no time for that. Would she be able to keep up? He didn't know how well she'd scored on stamina training in school.

Catching his evaluating glance, Ino raised an eyebrow. "I can take care of myself, if that's what you're wondering."

If she had energy for sauciness, he wasn't going to carry her anymore, he decided.

Shino weighed their options, aware that each second brought the Akatsuki closer. Attacking was not viable, not in their current state. They couldn't hope to lead Uchiha in a diversionary direction, he was more familiar with the area for one, and Konoha made an undoubtedly more alluring target than the two of them did. They needed back-up, but any support was miles away and currently dealing with the main invasion force.

Ultimately, they couldn't keep standing here, or they really wouldn't make it back to Konoha. "Start running." He said, "I'll follow."

"What is the plan?" Ino asked. Standing there in her blood-soaked clothes she looked wild, projecting a nervous energy that was upsetting the mushi.

"I don't have one yet." He admitted. How long it would take him to come up with one, he wasn't sure. "Now, run."

Bodies lay strewn across the clearing in morbid, twisted clusters. Watching from a concealed vantage point on the very edge of the camp, Sakura tried to make sense of what she was observing. There was no longer need to worry about the guards, they'd been called to the center of the camp long before. The Cloud nin were no longer concerned with their own security, or so it seemed.

Shinobi milled amongst the fallen, keeping one eye on the skies as they disassembled tents, breaking up camp mere hours after settling. Tenten had worked quickly, allowing only the minimum reactionary time, she was truly a skilled weapon mistress. Indeed, the evidence of her expertise was everywhere, tortured souls released from tired bodies which lay bloodied and broken on the forest floor. As the life ebbed out of the infected villagers, so too did the efficiency of Kumogakure's serum transport.

And with the disappearance of the serum so too did the chances of Cloud nin success vanish. Theoretically.

So why was it that they weren't retreating? Sakura had been monitoring the activity since the first of Tenten's steel fell and there had been very little panic, uncharacteristic for the overall inexperience of this group. Asides from a curt order to gather in the center and watch the perimeter, the Cloud nin had not even moved to save their serum enhanced villagers, after a preliminary surge towards the pens. Even now they seemed vastly unconcerned with the thought that Shikamaru's team continued to lurk somewhere in the darkened trees. Their behavior was not merely stupid and inexperienced, it was nearly improbable.

Sakura was intensely confused.

A light footstep on the trunk behind her caused Sakura to whirl, kunai extended, but it was only Tenten, mouth a grim line. "Shikamaru and Temari are coming." The older girl intoned. Sakura nodded wordlessly, "Are they still just standing there?" Tenten asked.

"See for yourself." Sakura moved over to give the other kunoichi a glimpse of the aftermath. "No response whatsoever."

"It's the same as when I was attacking." Tenten muttered, "I don't get it."

"They don't seem upset." Sakura fiddled with the clasp on her bag. "Considering you just destroyed their method of serum transport I would think there'd be some sort of emotional response. Anger, fear…anything."

"Do you think they expected this?" Tenten had voiced the one possibility that Sakura had been suppressing all night. What if, as the older girl had said, this was exactly what Kumogakure had wanted all along? The thought was troubling. Could it be, despite Shikamaru's planning, that they'd played directly into their enemy's hands? Surely not…

"I hope not." There was less than a day left before the invasion. If they couldn't stop Kumogakure here the battle would undoubtedly move to the streets of her hometown. Sakura had been one of the few who had witnessed the last invasion of Konoha, the memories were not those that she wished to dwell on.

In her time as an active kunoichi Sakura had participated in any number of missions, everything from targeted assassination attempts, to all-out battles, to raids. There was always something distinctly unsettling, an almost claustrophobic sense about those fights which took place on streets lined by houses and shops. A field or forest was anonymous and easily compartmentalized, but a street? A home?

No one deserved to die on their own doorstep.

Sakura had sent her parents away, ignoring their protests as she'd started them on the road out of town to visit her grandparents for the week. The thought that her own family was safe was an immense relief, but that didn't lessen her anxiety for those who had stayed behind. The thought of fighting foreign invaders in front of houses and buildings she'd known since her childhood chilled her. However, the possibility of a hand-to-hand battle was still preferable to the thought of what would happen should the hormone serum make its way into Konoha's populace.

The concept of fighting testosterone-addled childhood friends was something Sakura couldn't even wrap her mind around. Fighting a stranger to the death was bad enough. Fighting a friend would be unbearable.

Which was why she and Tenten were currently crouched in a tree trying to out-think these blasted Cloud nin.

"See those three over there?" Sakura followed Tenten's pointed finger, her gaze arriving on a small knot of people, hunched in furious discussion. "The woman is the main tactician, she's the one in charge of this operation. The other two are her subordinates."

The three in question straightened abruptly, beginning to gingerly pick their way across the bloodied ground. They moved towards the groups of lesser nin, the blood of their prisoners running past their feet, splitting the campsite into a morbid landscape of red streams and dusty islands.

Was this how the Cloud nin had intended to leave Konoha?

The deceptively mild voice of Shikamaru filtered through the leaves behind them. "They've decided on their next move." Sakura and Tenten felt the tree branches shift as their teammates arrived. "Just what that is, we shall wait and see."

"If they can't see that they're beaten they're fools." Temari nudged Shikamaru with her elbow, and Sakura, through some odd trick of sympathy for the absent Ino, bristled at the contact. It was stupid, she told herself, to act this way. There was a big chance that she was misreading the feelings between the two, and in any case, it wasn't her place to interfere. Despite all of this logic, watching her oldest friend's heart get broken was not something Sakura could do willingly. Flustered by her thoughts and her inability to focus on the current crisis, she moved forward to get a better view.

The fact that this brought her directly between Shikamaru and Temari was a happy coincidence. Shikamaru didn't seem to notice, but the maneuver gained Sakura a measured glance from the sand jounin. She responded with one of her own.

Sakura didn't like to waste time with being intimidated.

Lit only by the stars in the sky, the nin in the camp were reduced to blue-sliver figures, the night stripping them of any identity of their own. Instead they were united with their watchers as creatures of the night, motives and destinies obscured by the amalgamating shadows. There was increased movement in the camp, "They're moving the bodies." Tenten observed, "Look, all the bodies, they're carrying them."

"Are they cleaning up the evidence?" Sakura wondered, "Do you think they plan on cremating them?"

Shikamaru shot down her suggestion, "Covering their tracks at this point is a waste of time. They know we're here. Tenten's assault made that painfully obvious. Their options now are to either continue the attack or retreat. This dawdling doesn't serve them well either way."

"Attacking would be foolish." Sakura muttered, "At this point what could they hope to gain from it? They have to retreat."

"So you would think." In the camp, the shadows were shifting. All the dead were being transported to a common point on the far side of the camp grounds, near the river. With a hand gesture Shikamaru ordered Temari to the skies, the unspoken request being to determine just where they were disposing of the corpses. Bracing herself against the blast of wind which marked the girl's departure, Sakura noted how gingerly the Cloud nin handled the corpses. Some of them had even donned gloves. Barring those situations in which there was an imminent threat of contamination, such protection was very rarely used by shinobi. The barest of chakra shields was enough to combat most infection.

Shikamaru had noticed this as well. "Gloves." He pointed them out to Tenten. "Why would they need gloves? Sakura, there isn't a possibility that the serum could be transmitted through skin to skin contact, is there?"

She considered the possibility. "I doubt it. We didn't have that sort of trouble with Yamanaka Inoichi or Aburame Shibi. To be spread through skin contact the serum would have to be in the form of a virus or bacteria which it isn't, so I hardly think…" Her voice trailed off as a sudden, sickening possibility made itself clear. "Unless they…"

"Unless?"

"We need to move closer." Sakura dropped down out of the tree, the other two following. "Quickly! We need to find out where they're taking those bodies!"

"Temari is determining that now." Despite halting her ill-planned forage into the camp, Shikamaru quickly caught up with her line of thought. "You think the serum is blood based."

"Yes." The pounding of her heart in her ears was loud enough to block out the humming of the nighttime cicadas. "By injecting a small sample into the blood stream the serum can then spread and multiply through the person's own blood cells. It explains why even someone like Inoichi would eventually succumb. He might have been able to resist the original amount of serum but after it started reproducing it was too much for him to handle."

"By injecting those villagers they've increased their supply exponentially." Shikamaru swore under his breath. "Did Tenten attack quickly enough to stop the process?"

"I don't know." Sakura studied the night sky, rosy shimmers were begin to lighten the eastern horizon. Dawn. The villagers had been dead for several hours, the blood would begin to congeal…in the last group to be injected this might have halted the reproduction of the serum, but in the first two groups? She wasn't certain. The serum had already proven to be remarkably fast-acting.

Sakura wished Tsunade was here to offer council, surely the Hokage would have a better idea of the time frame they were dealing with here. Then again, the Hokage hated blood, an odd phobia for a ninja, perhaps Shizune would have been able to provide more information. If only they had thought of this possibility sooner!

They were poised at the edge of the camp, Sakura ground her teeth together in frustration. What was going on? Temari, seeing their progress from her airborne fan, began to swivel back, taking a lower arc over the far side of the camp, presumably for closer observation. Sakura took a deep breath, "This explains the gloves as well, any blood contact, maybe the contact of any bodily fluid will spread the hormones. They're not about to risk infection themselves. I should have guessed this! After Shino…"

"I overlooked it as well." Sakura could almost see the gears whirling in Shikamaru's brain. "They're gathering the bodies at a common point, but for what? Are they going to drain the blood?"

"I'll tell you what they're doing with the blood." Wind gusted about them as Temari landed with a heavy thud. She'd overheard the latter part of their conversation as she'd descended. "They're coating their weapons with it, sick bastards. Slicing those corpses to ribbons, that's what they're doing."

"Cutting up the bodies?" Tenten looked vaguely sick. "Dismembering them? Why?"

"Not sure." Temari shook her head, using her right hand to brush back several fly-away hairs, her left arm, Sakura noted, hung oddly limp. "As far as I could tell they're just chopping them up and tossing them in the river. Weren't too happy when I came by to see what they were doing, either."

Something was definitely off about the way the sand nin was moving her left arm. Medical senses screaming, Sakura began to move forward. "Temari, let me take a look at…"

"The river!" The three girls froze, stunned by the uncharacteristic outburst from one of Konoha's quietest shinobi. Shikamaru didn't notice, instead slapping one hand hard against his leg in frustration. "My god, the river, how could I miss it?"

"It could just be a burial ritual." Tenten ventured, "A way to hide the evidence?"

"No, it's not." Shikamaru shook his head, "I knew there was something wrong about the location of this campsite. Something so obvious we couldn't help but overlook it. It's the river." He brushed away a fly that had landed on his vest. "We need to return to Konoha immediately."

"I don't understand." Temari waved her good hand at the campsite. "Let us kill them here! There are only fifty nin, and they've got their guard down. I go in on the left, Tenten on the right, we wipe out the rest of the force. Take a few nin prisoner for interrogation. The end."

"There's no time." Shikamaru was focused now, earlier hesitation gone. He'd extracted a small scroll from one of his many vest pockets and was studying it intensely. "The blood is already in the water, and according to the map there are rapids less than a mile away. The current will increase after the rocks…at our top running speed we can just barely beat it back."

"You're losing me here." Temari sounded as puzzled as Sakura felt. "Blood in the water matters why?"

"The serum is in the blood, the blood is in the water." Sakura summed up for her, earning a quizzical reaction from the girl.

"And that means?"

"Well, the serum has now infected the river…" Sakura guessed, earning a curt nod from their mission leader. She wasn't exactly sure was this was such a huge problem, they were quite a ways away from Konoha in any case.

"This river is the Akame river." Shikamaru told them, latching the scroll shut and placing it in his pocket past the persistent insect that still hovered there. "It passes less than a mile from the northeast gate of Konoha."

Sakura's heart dropped to her toes.

Tenten gasped, fingers flying to her mouth. "The Akame river." It seemed as if every muscle in her body tensed at once. "It provides all the drinking and washing water for the Hyuuga compound!" The girl's mind had obviously flown to the fate of her teammate and not-so-secret crush. The prospects for his avoiding the serum, Sakura thought, no longer looked so great.

"As well as for the Inuzuka's and my own family's pastures." Shikamaru's mouth was set in a grim line, dark eyes reduced to narrow slits. "It's the primary irrigation point for the entire village."

Sakura was finding it hard to catch a breath. In her mind a bright crimson line snaked towards Konoha, its path unalterable and unstoppable. Each second that passed, rushing water brought her worst nightmares closer and closer to the waking village. "They…they've been putting bodies in for the past half an hour!"

"We must leave now." Shikamaru motioned them forward. "Move fast, when you reach Konoha spread the news as quickly as possible. Avoid the river, use well water only. We might not make it back in time to catch the early risers, so we'll have to do our best to isolate anyone who's infected. Tell everyone to avoid water or bodily fluid contact."

"Right." Tenten was gone and Temari made to follow before Sakura stopped her, mind momentarily clearing from its haze of panic.

"Your arm." She said in answer to the girl's questioning glance. "You're hurt, do you want me to check it out?"

Temari shrugged her off. "It's nothing, I pulled it a bit maneuvering above the camp, shouldn't affect my running." Against her better judgment, leaving even small wounds untreated was risky, Sakura let her go. She would make sure to treat it when they arrived back at the village. If the older girl had strained any muscles, it was best to immobilize them as soon as possible.

Ready to offer to bring up the rear, when they were done with their butchering the Cloud nin would undoubtedly head for Konoha, Sakura glanced back. "Shikamaru, I…what's wrong?" He stood with one hand outstretched, face frozen in an odd expression she couldn't identify.

He was staring at his palm, on which rested the small bug that had been pestering him for the past few minutes. There was not just one anymore, slowly an entire swarm was forming around his fingertips. "These are kikai mushi." His voice sounded choked, "Shino's bugs."

Since it seemed, for once, that Shikamaru was not thinking quickly enough to keep up with events, Sakura grabbed his arm and pulled him into the shelter of the trees. The bugs followed, a black, shifting mass that hovered before them ominously. "W...why would he send them?" Sakura stuttered, "He and Ino should be back soon anyway."

Shikamaru didn't reply. Sakura's dread grew, was it possible for every aspect of their mission to collapse at once? "Maybe they're delayed?" She squeaked, voice wobbling with unreleased tension.

Shikamaru still didn't move. The bugs in front of him began a sort of dance, twisting around each other until they began to form characters, words that hardly seemed to make sense, yet fit in a strange, appalling sort of way. Their whole message was soon sketched out, burning itself into Sakura's mind.

Kumogakure fallen to Akatsuki. Serum injections found. Ino engaged in fight with Uchiha Itachi, other member unidentified. Team pursued to Konoha, will delay as long as possible.

So it was Akatsuki then. Sakura had experienced an odd feeling of disappointment in seeing that the Uchiha in question was Itachi and not Sasuke. In regards to the younger brother, any information on his whereabouts was welcome, good or bad. Perhaps though, the arrival of Itachi in Konoha would harbor the return of the village's other prodigal son, however dark his motives were. Disgusted with herself for ignoring the real problem at hand, Sakura reread the message.

Images of Ino sprang unbidden to her mind's eye. Her best friend, her biggest rival for ages, ultimately the blond kunoichi was the dearest friend Sakura had in Konoha. Ino had engaged in a fight with Itachi? Naruto and Kakashi had survived encounters with the older Uchiha, but both were better suited to such an encounter. Kakashi due to experience and his matching sharingan, Naruto because of the sheer power of his trapped kitsune.

What in the world had caused Ino to enter into battle with the S-ranked criminal? How exactly was Shino planning on delaying two Akatsuki hell-bent on arriving in Konoha in time to watch the serum take effect? Would any of them make it back to Konoha in time to stop its destruction?

Shikamaru was waving the insects away, most, Sakura noted, took flight immediately, returning to their master. "I'm sure Ino's okay." Sakura said hesitantly, ignoring every instinct that told her this couldn't possibly be the case. She met his eyes. "She and Shino will get back alright."

For the first time in her life, she saw Shikamaru lose control of his emotions. "Don't give me suppositions!" He snapped, "I want facts only, do you understand?! Ino just fought a shinobi who slaughtered his entire clan and you want me to believe it's no big deal?! Shino's faced with stopping two Akatsuki that would give any team of Konoha ninja a problem and I ordered them both there. Do you understand Sakura? Their blood will be on my hands. As will Konoha's if I don't get there in time." His shoulders were a stiff line under his jacket, hands balled into fists. "Konoha has top priority and because of that I can't send a single shinobi to help Shino and Ino. I signed their death warrant when I sent them off last night."

Sakura stood there, stunned. His logic was carving a deep swathe through any hope she'd held out for Ino's return, but at the same time, his rationality had the effect of making her furious. Truly, blindingly enraged.

If it hadn't been so completely against her better judgment she would have punched Shikamaru with everything she had.

As it was, she drew herself to her full height. Hardly believing what she was about to do. "Don't you dare give up on them, Shikamaru."

His eyes were filled with something close to anguish, but Sakura's rage allowed her to feel no sympathy for the boy. "They have less than a 15 chance of…"

"I don't care!" Sakura pulled the shoulder straps of her medical pack. "If there is anyone who can beat your odds it's Ino, I won't have you write her off." Reaching into her pocket, she retrieved several small vials and handed them to boy. "These are the estrogen injections. They might buy some time if any of you are infected." Glancing about, she spotted two or three kikai mushi where they still hovered, recovering their strength for the flight back.

Shikamaru followed her gaze. "Where are you going?"

"To Ino and Shino, I'll follow the bugs." Sakura tightened her forehead protector. "The two of them are probably injured, they'll need medical back-up."

"I didn't order you to-"

"You can't." Sakura interrupted him. "Like you said Shikamaru, Konoha needs everyone you've got, but right now Ino and Shino need me more. You can't order me to go to them, so I'll go by myself. If Tsunade has a problem with it, I'll talk to her when I get back."

"You…" Sakura wondered for a moment if he'd try to stop her. Emotions played across his face as he warred with himself, determination, fear, anger, hope. Shikamaru nodded and stepped back.

"Go, then." His face was blank, once again had he held himself in check. "Sakura?"

"Yes?"

"I expect you back in Konoha by evening."

The group from the north had been traveling all night, arriving at the small fishing village as dawn broke, the sun's rays creating prisms as it reached across the ocean. The village was just beginning to wake, early risers heading down to shore to launch their boats into the bay. The four strangers drew many curious glances as they ducked into a small udon shop on the main strip. Their leader sank into a stool at the counter, the others following his example.

"Why are we stopping now?" The blue haired boy draped himself over the counter, ignoring the scandalized glances of the waitress. "I thought you wanted to get to Konoha fast. Don't tell me you're hungry?"

"Don't be stupid. He's not hungry, he's thinking." The girl next to him slapped him over the head, a move which cause his hand to jump to the hilt of the large sword he carried.

"You do that one more time and I swear I'll…" They moved back, giving themselves room for a tussle in the confined space.

"Enough." Both backed down under the glare of the head shinobi. "We've traveled far enough for now. Karin, I want you to scout out nearby movement. Pay especial attention to the west."

"Of course." She smiled graciously at the speaker before sending a flying kick towards her constant antagonist. "Make that face one more time and you won't have any of those disgusting teeth left!"

"Of course." The sword bearer mocked her. ""Whatever you say my dear S-" A fist in the nose stopped his sentence but, to the waitress' shock he seemed hardly phased by the attack. Instead he shook his finger at the girl mockingly. "Now, now Karin, haven't you learned?"

Their leader appeared unperturbed by their bickering. "Suigetsu, you will scout around the bay." It seemed for a moment that Suigetsu would refuse the orders, but instead he stood grudgingly. His eyes rolled in annoyance.

"Fine. Fine. Don't lose my sword while I'm gone, you hear?" Leaning the massive weapon against the counter, he rolled his shoulders to relieve the cramps. Several nasty glances later and both of them exited the restaurant, leaving the other two boys behind. The waitress brought out small glasses of tea.

Taking a sip from his cup, the larger of the two considered the shinobi sitting on his right. "Do you want me to reconnoiter the mountain area?" He asked, massive hands wrapped around the delicate chinaware.

"It's not necessary." Pale hands reached out to pick up the second cup of tea. "I'm already well aware of where the target is."

"Ah." They lapsed into silence. From the back of the restaurant a small cat emerged, padding across the counter on quiet feet to demand attention from the two customers. The large man was happy to oblige, using two fingers he scratched the feline gently under the chin, eliciting pleased purrs.

"You like animals?" Dark eyes took in the absurd scene of a giant killer catering to a tiny ball of fluff.

"Not particularly, not like Suigetsu." The man shrugged, "I had a cat when I was a child, is all."

"Hmm." The waitress brought them medium-sized bowls of miso, her smile falling on their cold features which offered not so much as a smirk in response. Unnerved, she bowed her way back into the kitchen, probably intent on telling the kitchen staff what jerks they were.

"Lots of people are going to die in Konoha today." Dark eyes met light and the man continued, his earnestness somehow out-of-place coming from such a menacing form. "I can feel it. If anyone knows what that serum will do, it's me. You said…you said the strategist from Konoha is the best, but even he can't outthink this. He can't, he doesn't know enough about Akatsuki."

"He's a fast learner." The smaller shinobi spooned soup to his mouth. "He has already anticipated more than I thought he would. Nara won't be able to stop the serum, true, but he has already guessed they're after the Kyuubi and that alone might be enough to thwart them."

"He might save the Kyuubi, but not the village."

"That's not necessary." The last spoonful of miso was swallowed. "Not for us, in any case."

The cat ran off with a soft meow, beckoned by someone beyond the curtain leading to the kitchen. "You won't make a move to help Konoha then? I thought that maybe…for old times' sake…"

His question garnered no response and he shifted uncomfortably. Picking up his own bowl of soup, he sipped directly from the rim, not bothering with the spoon. With gathering unease, he signaled the waitress for more tea. She complied, but the silence continued. Finally he broke it, a small droplet of sweat gathering at the nape of his neck.

"Look, I'm sorry about…I didn't mean…"

"It's no matter." Waving the waitress away, the other boy tapped his fingers briefly against the countertop. "I have not yet determined what to do about Konoha."

"I see."

"If events proceed as I anticipate, the Leaf village will have to fend for itself."

"Are you-" Both looked up as the girl in their group rushed back into the restaurant, looking decidedly displeased.

"Karin?"

"You will not believe what happened in Kumogakure last night!" She fumed, throwing herself into the stool previously occupied by Suigetsu. "You won't be happy about this, not one bit!" As she began relating her story the mood at the counter grew increasingly darker, until even Karin began to falter a bit.

"So…what should we do?"

"Move out." Their leader was on his feet and out the door before they could follow. Karin shrugged at the boy next to her.

"I knew he wasn't going to be happy." They stood, the man grabbing Suigetsu's sword on the way out.

"Should we pay the bill?" He asked.

"Why should we? What're they gonna do? Force us to?" She trotted forward after the already distant figure of their leader. "Oi! Wait up!"

Anyone still asleep in the fishing village was awoken several moments later when the waitress came back to discover her strange morning customers were gone. A quick search of the village found two broken, battered fisherman underneath the wharf and a missing fishing boat. Further investigation yielded nothing apart from a growing sense of insecurity.

It was decided no one would follow the four visitors.