DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the concept or idea of genjutsu, dysfunctional team members or friends, and various other special things that are in this chapter.

A/N: Please note: '(fwip)' means that there's a change in scene, but it's at that exact moment. In a book, it would simply be a gap between paragraphs, but this isn't a book; this is Fanfiction.

Itachi: (just glares at reader, gives off evil aura that means 'read the chapter or die')

A/N: ...I hate it when he glares like that. It's scary.

"Dammit!" Kiba yelled, falling to his knees and punching his fists against the ground.

Michiko sighed when she caught up to him, and put her hands on her hips, looking around the woods. They had lost the bandits that they had been chasing.

"Kiba, you shouldn't have run without thinking," Michiko scolded lightly, "This is like a mistake I would do. We were lucky there were no traps set for us this time."

"Shut up," Kiba grumbled, pressing his forehead into the ground, "I want to make my life worse."

"Oh, don't go all emo on me," Michiko exclaimed, nudging her friend with her toe, "Now get up! Let's go back and help the others."

"You're calling me emo?" Kiba growled, grabbing Michiko's ankle and flooring her, "This is the girl who was all 'Shaun hates me' a few days ago!"

"Oh, so you being all 'Pooriin is a Chatora' right after you saw the way I acted is better?" Michiko snapped back, kicking him hard in the hip.

"Don't get me angry!" Kiba snarled, tackling Michiko, grabbing her shoulders, rolling, and throwing her to the side.

"Like you're not angry already!" Michiko growled, landing on her feet and using the Body Flicker Technique as Kiba stood up to get right in front of him, and punched him in the gut, "Don't blame me for your emo problems!"

"I'M NOT EMO!" Kiba yelled, grabbing Michiko by the throat with one hand.

Michiko grabbed Kiba around the throat in the same way, so both of them were stuck, waiting for the other to start squeezing. Michiko glared icily at Kiba, making ominous sounds in her throat; Kiba was snarling right back, with an irate look in his eyes that dared her to try and kill him. After a moment, both blinked, and simultaneously they dropped their hands and looked away in shame.

"I'm sorry," Michiko whispered, rubbing her upper arm, embarrassed.

"Yeah," Kiba muttered, scratching the back of his neck, "Me too."

A minute of silence passed, then both got the courage to look back at the other and speak again.

"You hit like a girl," Kiba said converationally, putting a hand where Michiko had punched him, "Oh, wait...you are a girl..."

"Don't make me call you emo again," Michiko warned, shaking a fist at him good-naturedly.

The two friends laughed together, but then their moment was gone. At the same time, both turned their heads as they heard footsteps crashing and weapons clanging together. The sound was getting louder; the others must be taking the battle towards them. A kunai whizzed through the trees; Kiba caught it by the handle before it hit Michiko in the forehead.

"Oh, thanks," Michiko grinned, adjusting her forehead protector so that it was not longer around her neck, but on her forehead.

"No problem," Kiba grinned back, holding the kunai so that he could use it now.

Both got serious at the same time and got into their fighting stances; they crouched on all fours, side by side, with Kiba facing one way, and Michiko facing the other, acting as back-up.

"I wish Akamaru were here," Kiba muttered.

"I know what you mean," Michiko nodded, thinking of her own small pack.

Both waited, listening as the battle got closer, and waiting for their chance to step in.

What's happening? Who's in the battle approaching them? What's going on? AAH! ...I mean...(fwip)

"Hinata, please help!" Pooriin yelled, tears of frustration and fear going down her cheeks.

The young Chatora was still shaking Michiko's shoulders, trying to wake her up. Hinata was crouched and hugging herself; she could still hear her father scorning her.

"Hinata, please!" Pooriin begged again, "You know I can't fight!"

Goudon, where are you? Pooriin thought frantically, I can't fight without you...

(fwip)

"'Can't fight'?" Sumoggu murmured to himself from a treebranch a safe distance away, "That could prove useful..."

"Sumoggu-san?"

Sumoggu turned and saw Ruko, the boy in the long, brown coat, and Ezu looking at him, their leader, for more instructions. Ezu was holding a hand-held mirror of ice; she had finished setting up her jutsu and was ready to use it.

"We'll take two hostages," Sumoggu said, with a wan smile, "The one in pink, and our special bonus."

(fwip)

Michiko and Kiba didn't have to wait long for the fight to appear; that didn't surprise them considering how fast it was moving. What did surprise them was who it was.

"Shino?" Michiko exclaimed, her jaw dropping, "And Korii?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Kiba yelled, he and Michiko getting up, "Why are you fighting each other?"

Shino and Korii were both battling as if to the death; Shino held two kunai, and Korii held his curved sword with both hands. Both were wounded and bleeding freely in many places, but neither seemed to slack his pace at blows.

"He tried to join the enemy's ranks when he thought we were losing!" Shino accused breathlessly, still fighting.

"Don't pin what you did on me," Korii snarled, parrying yet another attack and throwing one of his own.

"Guys...guys, stop," Michiko begged, jumping up and standing beside the two fighters with her hands forward, trying to figure out what to do, "Guys, we're a team. Stop fighting!"

Kiba stepped forward to help, then turned around; more people were fighting in the other direction.

"You don't know what he said, Michiko," Shino said, trying to find an opening in Korii's attacks, "You don't know what he did."

"He's lying!" Korii exclaimed, still parrying, "He's the traitor, not me!"

"Kiba, a little-" Michiko started, turning to her friend.

"Sorry, Michiko, I'll be right back," Kiba interrupted hurriedly, having heard a scream that sounded too familiar.

Ignoring Michiko's protests, Kiba ran into the forest in the opposite direction that Shino and Korii had come from. There, he found-

"Hinata?" Kiba exclaimed, freezing in his place and his jaw dropping, "And Pooriin? What the hell are you doing? Why are you fighting each other?"

"Kiba, help me!" Pooriin cried, struggling to dodge Hinata's Juuken attacks.

"Hinata, stop!" Kiba yelled, "Stop! Why are you doing this?" he asked, trying to grab Hinata's arms.

Hinata elbowed Kiba swiftly, knocking the breath out of him and sending him a couple steps back.

What is going on? Kiba thought, Hinata's never like this...genjutsu! Is it genjutsu?

Kiba put his right hand's index and middle fingers together, forming the concentration 'seal', and he closed his eyes, focusing on disrupting his chakra flow.

Please work! Kiba thought as he opened his eyes, ...yes!

Kiba was back in the purple cloud of smoke, with the group.

It was a genjutsu! Kiba thought ecstatically, sniffing the air, Now to find Akamaru and-

"Kiba, Hinata's trying to kill me!" Pooriin exclaimed.

Kiba sweatdropped; he was back in the forest, and Hinata had just hit Pooriin in the stomach with Juuken.

"How did..."

Kiba let his voice trail off, seeing how Hinata had pinned Pooriin to a tree and was now pulling out a kunai. Not wanting to see what happened next, Kiba shut his eyes and tried disrupting his chakra again.

"Back!" Kiba whooped, sitting up in the purple smoke.

"What have you got to be happy about?" Korii roared, feeling his already scalded skin get worse.

"I'll help you in a sec!" Kiba called, sniffing the air for Korii's scent, "I...KUSO!!"

Kiba found himself in the woods with Pooriin and Hinata, yet again.

"It must be scent," Kiba nodded to himself, "The genjutsu targets the nose using scent. I hate that."

"Kiba, help me!" Pooriin cried, trying to hold Hinata's kunai back.

Kiba looked at his girlfriend, half regretfully, half knowing that the whole thing was fake. He hesitated, then shook his head and disrupted his chakra for what would (hopefully) be the last time.

(fwip)

The real Pooriin was getting the growing sense that something was about to make the situation much, much worse. Standing up, she squinted, trying to make out objects or people through the thick smoke. Suddenly, and hand clamped over her mouth, too secure for her to struggle out of it, and a kunai was held at her throat; Hinata was going through the same situation.

"Please just come with us; I don't want to slit your throat open," a voice hissed at Pooriin's ear.

Kicking, scratching, and trying to scream, Pooriin continued struggling against her captor as she was dragged away. The other kidnapper had an easier job; Hinata had fainted dead away.

Kuso, my eyes are getting dry, Goudon thought, oblivious to what was happening with his sister, I wish I could blink!

(fwip)

Sumoggu smirked where he sat, seeing the two hostages being taken, and gave a hand signal for his group to retreat. Their work was done for the day.

(fwip)

Korii felt the water stop splashing him, and Shino realized that the bird had now flown away.

"Guys, are you all alive?" Korii called, still trying to pry the sticky substance from his eyes.

"Yes," Shino called.

"Yeah," Kiba called, waking up again, "Korii, Bijigo needs helb." (Translation: Korii, Michiko needs help.)

"Why do you sound like that?" Korii asked, trying to walk towards Kiba, then, realizing that his feet appeared to be covered with the gummy substance, immobilizing him, "Crap."

"Id's a log shtory, buh to bood id shord..." Kiba started, keeping his nose pinched shut. (Translation: It's a long story, but to put it short...)

(fwip)

Michiko had had enough; she grabbed Shino's arms and turned her head back to Korii.

"Stop fighting, both of you...Korii, NO!"

Korii took this chance to run Shino through with his sword; Michiko stared, unbelieving, as Shino fell to his knees, dragging her down with him.

"Oh my...Korii, what have you done?" Michiko whispered, holding Shino's face between her hands.

"Michiko...Michiko..." Shino murmured, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

"No, no, don't talk; you'll make it worse-" Michiko started, then felt Korii's bloody sword at her neck.

"You've betrayed me too," Korii said menacingly, raising his sword again to swing it right at Michiko.

"Korii, please," Michiko whispered, still looking at Shino, "Please!"

"I will suffer no traitors," Korii shrugged, and his sword came down.

Michiko, Hinata: NOOOOOO!

Pooriin: I'm gonna cry! (sob)

Deniizu: COOL! A bloody sword!

Shino: ...That's my blood.

Itachi, Korii: ...

A/N: What happens next? What's going on? ...you know that people can die for real in a properly made genjutsu, right? Review, please!