DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, funky chi, growing ice, the return of the 'fwip', and...stuff.

Michiko felt something in her blood bothering her, much like when the exploding tags from a few days before had been about to go off. But now, it reminded her of when she would turn into water, or air.

"Can anyone else feel that? Or do I just have funky chi?" Michiko asked, turning away from watching Korii's group and looking around.

"I don't feel anything," Deniizu answered, still watching her team leader before he disappeared into the trees. Shino, however, looked straight at the bandit's group in sight, following a hunch.

"There," Shino pointed, consciously willing himself to stay calm.

"Ice?" Michiko exclaimed, seeing sheets of it begin to 'grow', just like the tendrils of ice that had caught Kurenai.

"Deniizu, Michiko, both of you help the hostages," Shino ordered, "The dogs and I will guard Kurenai-sensei."

Deniizu began running, but Michiko hesitated; she took a few steps, then looked back at Shino, still not sure whether to go.

"As co-team leader, I order you to go," Shino commanded tersely, and Michiko nodded before sprinting towards her friends.

Shino took his hands out of his pockets and stood at the ready, prepared for any attack. No-one would be able to touch his teacher now.

"Hurry up!" Pooriin yelled, urging Deniizu and Michiko on when she saw that they were approaching.

"Hurry up!" Kishimu taunted, poorly mimicking the Chatora girl's voice.

"Who said you could talk, anyway?" Sumoggu glared, punching Pooriin in the gut so that she landed hard on the ground.

"Hey!" Kiba shouted, landing a roundhouse kick on Sumoggu so that he fell onto the ground, "You leave her alone!"

"You little shit!" Sumoggu roared, bounding back up and throwing Kiba against the steadily growing ice wall.

Michiko and Deniizu could see that the sheets of ice were now over waist high.

Will we make it? both thought, putting on an extra burst of speed.

Deniiizu managed to grab the top and volley herself over. Michiko, though, had been well behind her teammate. By the time she reached the almost-complete ice dome, the top was too high for her to reach.

"COME ON!" Michiko shrieked, landing a direct roundhouse kick on the ice wall that would have made her teacher proud.

But as heavy and well-formed the kick had been, in a moment, Michiko found herself on her back, seeing stars. Looking up at the ice wall, she saw that she hadn't even cracked it.

(fwip)

Korii first rushed Ruko, who was the bandit closest to where he had been running from. Ruko ducked a Juuken blow that was so forceful it might have sealed off his chakra flow permanently, but before he could retaliate, Korii used chakra to vault himself over the enemy. While he flipped, the Hyuuga lashed out at the girl in the center, who was still working on her jutsu, but the girl beside her deflected those attacks too. Once he had landed, Korii prepared to attack the greenhaired girl, but stopped himself. He was looking at a 10-year-old that looked terrified beyond anything.

"But...you're just a kid!" Korii exclaimed, just as the Chatora twins began attacking.

"It may be genjutsu or some kind of prodigy, Hyuuga," Bikto reminded, attacking Ezu but being deflected by Emi, while Goudon faced off against Ruko.

Inwardly cursing at himself, Korii reactivated his Byakugan.

"I'm sorry, kid," Korii said, getting into his fighting stance.

The greenhaired girl nodded, blinking back tears of fear, and reached into her ninja weapons pouch, preparing to fight back. Korii waited patiently, knowing neither of them wanted to fight.

Ruko decided that Ezu needed a little more time to finish her jutsu; he could see that the dome was still not quite complete. Landing a solid kick on Goudon's chest, Ruko grabbed Ezu around the waist, and ran blindly towards the road, just to give her enough space and time to finish the jutsu. Emi hurried to keep up, using her water balloon trick to move faster, and the twins followed, right on their heels.

"Almost!" Ezu exclaimed, seeing that all she needed was the dome's roof.

"Nee-chan! Like, hurry?" Emi gasped, barely ducking a kunai.

"Nearly there!" Ezu assured, while Ruko kept running.

"You're starting to get heavy," Ruko emphasized, realizing that he was slowing down.

"Then put her down!" Goudon yelled, putting on an extra burst of speed and body checking Ruko, just as Ezu yelled, "Done!"

Ruko dropped Ezu and went rolling, quite undignified, but managed to get right back on his feet gracefully before losing momentum. Turning, he saw that Ezu had decided to combat against Goudon, and started to walk towards them and help, when he felt eyes on him. Averting his eyes from Ezu, and reminding himself that she was a good fighter herself, he saw Shino looking straight at him.

"I suppose you're my fight, then," Ruko said, almost conversationally.

Shino merely nodded, and Ruko got straight into his fighter stance. Both knew that the other ninja was talented, and that the fight would be satisfying. Though Ruko kept his face still while preparing to fight, he winced inwardly.

This fight would have been worth the effort, Ruko thought ruefully.

(fwip)

Deniizu landed lightly on her feet, and threw a kunai towards Kiba before spinning, almost ballet-like, to land a hard punch on Sumoggu.

"I saw you hit my friends," Deniizu said, almost cheerily, as she stood between the hostages and the enemy's leaders, "You're an idiot."

"Me?" Sumoggu raised an eyebrow, "But you're caught in our trap."

"Trap?" Deniizu smiled serenely, "Or arena?"

Kishimu felt a punch in his ribs, and a bite on his leg, before he fell right beside Sumoggu. Tsume swallowed her smile when she saw the way Kishimu was scowling. Pooriin and Hinata, who still didn't understand what had happened, saw Kiba get out of his fighter's crouch and stand beside Deniizu, with Akamaru snarling right beside him.

"Good job with that kunai!" Kiba complimented, handing it back to Deniizu, "It sliced right through those ropes."

"No problem," Deniizu grinned.

Michiko could only watch through the clear ice, but she still understood what was going on. When Deniizu glanced at her, Michiko gave her a small salute and a cheering motion with her arms.

I know you'll do well, Michiko thought, So save something for me to beat up once I get in.

I'll remember that, Deniizu nodded, and turned back to the dog-user beside her, "Let's have some fun, Kiba."

(fwip)

While fighting, Goudon couldn't help but feel a little bit confused. First he looked from Ezu, who he was sparring against, then he glanced at Emi, who Bikto was fighting against.

Oh, it's not clones of the same person, he realized, This one has longer hair.

Deflecting a jab from Ezu's kunai, Goudon grabbed her wrists, completely engulfing them with his own large hands. Holding her hands high up over her head so that she couldn't move her arms, Goudon examined her and her lookalike carefully.

"Are you two twins?" he asked after a moment, raising his eyebrows.

Ezu couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about how he was examining her, but she still answered.

"Uh...no," the ice-jutsu specialist answered, trying to wriggle away from Goudon, "We're cousins."

"Oh," Goudon nodded thoughtfully, before letting her wrists go and stepping back into a fighter's crouch similar to Lee's, "Ok. Carry on."

Ezu merely stared at the boy, and when Bikto and Emi saw what was happening, they also stopped fighting.

"...That's weird," Ezu stated, still trying to figure out what to do, while Goudon stayed in his crouch, waiting patiently for her to attack, "You're not going to try?"

"Neither are you two," Bikto pointed out, both he and Emi walking to stand beside their relative, "We only fight all out if the other person is too."

"So, why aren't you making an effort?" Goudon asked, relaxing from his crouch.

Emi looked at Ezu and smiled, relieved.

"Good thing these people can see sense," Ezu commented.

"Ok, so here's, like, our sitch," Emi started.

(fwip)

As soon as he saw the four dogs stand around Kurenai defensively, Ruko threw his backpack in a high arc over Shino's head, meaning to have it land behind the trenchcoated boy. Sensing something was amiss, Shino used his kikaichu to catch the bag and propel it back towards Ruko.

He's smart, Ruko thought, nodding to himself.

He's planning something, Shino thought, trying to figure out what.

Ruko let the backpack drop onto the ground beside him, and used the Body Flicker Technique to get on the other side of Shino. However, he held back and made his use of the technique obvious. Too obvious. Shino didn't even bother to turn when he used a kunai to deflect a shuriken that had been fairly slowly thrown towards his neck. Just when Ruko tried to charge, Shino turned and held his kunai out like a sword, pointing it straight at his opposition. Ruko stopped running, and after shrugging a little, he got into a fighter's stance similar to Sasuke's.

"What're you trying to pull?" Shino asked bluntly, still holding out his kunai, "I know you can fight better than this. But your movements are obvious and slow. What are you planning?"

Ruko got out of his stance and put slowly his weapons away.

"Allow me to explain," Ruko began, a wry smile on his face.

(fwip)

Korii slowly walked back to the road with Monoka right in step beside him. Though the Hyuuga had gotten a little heated about the fact that this greenhaired runaway was the one who had temporarily blinded him, he still gave her a fair chance to explain herself. And once he had heard her case, he decided that he might as well help her. Which Monoka thought was wonderful.

"I'm not gonna die!" Monoka cheered to herself in a singsong voice, "Instead I'm gonna be free!"

"Only if you quiet down," Korii muttered, "I need to think."

"Oh, ok! I'll be quiet!" Monoka nodded enthusiastically, clapping a hand over her mouth.

As they walked in silence, Korii couldn't help but think, At least she is quiet when she says she will be. Linda back at home just keeps talking.

(fwip)

Michiko was desperate to get into the ice dome now.

Deniizu was doing fine facing off against Kishimu; she had a surgeon's mask that Michiko had lent to her over her mouth and nose, and she kept disrupting her chakra so that Kishimu's genjutsu couldn't affect her. Kiba was sparring against Tsume, who had to try and help the person she had sworn to defend, and he was fairly safe since Tsume wasn't really doing her best. Even Kageno was simply hovering over Akamaru, who was only barking at the falcon. But Sumoggu was still in the dome, as was Hinata and Pooriin. While the rest of his group was fighting, Sumoggu had slipped over to the side of the dome that Michiko and the hostages were at. Wanting to ensure that Michiko truly was the Gorgon that he was looking for, Sumoggu decided to get her angry. How? By beating Hinata where Michiko could see.

"See this, bitch?" Sumoggu laughed nastily as he kicked Hinata roughly in the stomach, "Nothing you can do about it, huh?"

Kamisama, make him stop! Pooriin thought, now frantically trying to free herself.

"Leave her alone!" Pooriin yelled, one hot tear of frustration running down one cheek.

"You prick!" Michiko screamed, battering her fists against the clear ice wall, "I hate you! Leave Hinata alone!"

Hinata could only silently cry to herself, making yelps of pain each time a kick landed.

"I'd like to see you try and stop me!" Sumoggu sneered, kicking again.

"Hinata, you can fight!" Pooriin yelled, another tear falling, "Come on! I know you can!"

I can't do anything! Pooriin thought, angry with herself, I can't do anything!

"Kiba, Michiko can handle it," Deniizu shouted, when she saw Kiba moving towards the other side of the dome, "Stick to your own fight!"

Michiko could see now that Hinata was coughing up blood; if she was angry before, she was livid now. Feeling herself turn into fire, she just barely controlled it so that her clothes also changed elements.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Michiko screamed, calling as much chakra as she could into her left fist, and punching as hard as she was capable of, directly into the wall of ice.

"...yes..." Sumoggu grinned as he moved out of the way of shards of ice, a strange light shining in his eyes.

Hinata was low and close enough to the wall to actually be below where the ice was flying. Michiko felt excruciating pain in her fist, shocking her out of being fire as she stepped into the dome. Kiba was too focused on his sparring match to notice ice shards embedding themselves in his arm, but Deniizu winced when she felt her leg getting cut. Turning to see what had caused that, Kishimu took the chance to throw a chakra-powered punch at her face, giving her enough momentum to slide across the room with a fresh black eye, loosing the surgeon's mask on her face in the process.

Pooriin saw, and wished she could help.

I'm always only in the way, she thought, a third tear falling.

Looking down, Michiko saw that she had only released enough chakra to merely crack the wall; the rest had been her own strength. Since her training had not gotten her hands used to heavy beating, her hands would have been sorely bruised or bleeding. But the sheets of ice had acted like glass, and Michiko could see large shards of it sticking out of her hand; blood was dripping off of her fist.

"Shoot," Michiko whispered to herself, stunned and all too aware of the pain in her hand.

Sumoggu took this moment to grab Michiko around the neck. The boy was much taller and stronger than her; he easily lifted her up off the ground by her throat.

I'm so weak...Pooriin thought, two more tears streaking her cheeks, Everyone's always taking care of me, and now I can't pay them back.

Sumoggu chuckled at Michiko feeble attempts at fighting back. She hadn't trained enough, he could see, she still needed a lot of oxygen to fight.

"A pity," Sumoggu muttered to himself, "The Gorgon is so easy to intimidate."

"That just means we have better control over her," Kishimu pointed out, sauntering slowly to where Deniizu lay; the girl had hit her head against the wall, and lay on the ground, stunned.

"That's true," Sumoggu nodded slowly.

Pooriin looked at Kiba, who was still fighting against Tsume, then to Hinata, who was curled up in the fetal position and silently crying, to Deniizu and Michiko, whose fights were slowly slipping away from them.

WHY CAN'T I DO ANYTHING? WHY AM I ALWAYS SO WEAK? Pooriin screamed inwardly to herself.

"Why am I always so useless?" Pooriin finally screamed on the outside, not realizing how her eyes were suddenly changing.

"'Why' indeed," Kishimu smirked, slowly raising Deniizu up by her hair.

The weakness in the ropes is here, Pooriin's thoughts said, and instinctively she broke them apart completely, Kishimu's weakness is a thin skull. Hitting him at this angle will be enough.

Pooriin jumped up and grabbed one of the glass jars that Kishimu stored scent in. Whirling towards him, she spun and cracked it hard against his head, using enough force to send him pitching towards the ice dome's wall. A sickening crack was heard, and Kishimu's body went slack as he slid to the floor, never to rise again.

"...Gawd...Pooriin..." Deniizu scrambled away from the dead body, "You just...!"

Tsume froze where she was, seeing Kishimu fall, and Kiba immediately hurried to the other side of the dome.

"Pooriin, what happened?" Kiba asked, trying to make sense of what was going on.

Pooriin finally looked away from Kishimu's body, and the rest of the dome could see that her eyes no longer reflected the sunlight coming in through the dome's glass-like ice.

"She's the Gorgon?" Sumoggu exclaimed unbelievingly, dropping Michiko and accidentally spitting.

The Kiba's greatest weakness is me. To destroy...to destroy the self...to...Pooriin's thoughts suddenly couldn't connect anymore.

"Pooriin?" Kiba stepped towards her slowly, holding his hand out, "What's wrong? What happened to your eyes?"

Pooriin looked down and shook her head, clearing her thoughts completely. The whole time, she didn't blink. When she looked up again, the first thing she saw was Deniizu at Michiko's side, both trying to take care of the other.

The Gorgon has to kill or destroy everything it sees, Tsume had said, It's that form's only purpose. She can't stop herself.

A/N: AAAAAAAAH!

Michiko: AAAAAAAH!

Deniizu: ...aaaaah?

Michiko and Esperwen: (points to Gorgon) AAAAAAAH!

Itachi: (rolls eyes) Uuuugh...idiots. Reader, you must review.

A/N: No, I don't mean the fact that Pooriin's the Gorgon. I mean that this fic has one more chapter!

Deniizu, Michiko, Pooriin: AAAAAAAH!