Disclaimer: Hikari only shares Masashi Kishimoto's birthday; all character depicted herein belong to the latter, while the clan of darkness and Takenoichi Yuriko belong to the former.

Chapter 14: Nani mo Nai o Shitte

"Why do you suppose they set up camp?" Max asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Sakura shrugged.

"Who knows? They're probably expecting they'll gain easy access to the village via this route, so they figure they won't waste time if they rest for a while..."

"Underestimating the enemy, a grave mistake for a ninja to make," Neji said quietly, scanning the nearby trees for their companions.

Rei crouched next to Max, nervously eyeing several men with swords strapped to their backs. This was probably the closest he would get to a lethal weapon, and he didn't like it one bit. But what choice did he have?

"There's the signal!" Neji said suddenly, spotting the slight flicker of flame a few meters away from him. "Go!"

In tandem, Rei and Max leapt down into the clearing, landing lightly on the dirt floor. Regaining their balance quickly, they ran towards the first two ninja they could see. As he ran, Max performed the seals he needed for what was turning to be his favorite technique. Soon, the two ninja found themselves waist-deep in dark brown muck.

"Rei, your turn!"

The neko-jin needed no urging. He knew they had to act fast, and barely two seconds had passed since the execution of Max's technique then the two victims felt a sharp pain in their chests and fell silent, unable to sound the alarm. Rei quickly retrieved his now-bloodied kunai while beside him, Max belched a small cloud of poison, serving as a mask for their teammates' entrance.

Not far away, Neji had just performed a chakra-augmented sword strike to one man's chest, to the neck of one other, and was finishing off a third with a kite to the stomach. Sakura was busy burying four or five in the earth with her superhuman strength - courtesy of her training with Tsunade. The large chunks of rock flying through the air managed to knock down two more.

"Any sign of the others?" Rei asked as he ran up. While waiting for any of his three companions to answer, he sent one man flying with a Lightning Fist - a variation of Byakko's Gatling Claw. He turned back to his teammates, the electricity crackling as it faded away.

"Naruto's should be somewhere to our left, since Kakashi and Company elected to enter from the right," Sakura replied, punching one man unconscious (at the very least).

"You were right, Neji," Max commented as he plunged his kunai into the gut of an oncoming Shikino ninja. The blonde grimaced as he withdrew the weapon, earning a gurgling sound from the man's throat as he fell. "Oh, gross..." He shuddered and then turned back to the pale-eyed teen. "These guys aren't too hard to take down..."

That's just what worries me... Neji thought. According to Kakashi-san, these men are all the elite of this clan, so in theory, they should be stronger and harder to deal with. But even rookies - thought talented ones - are able to defeat them in a matter of seconds. What's going on?

"Hinata, look out!"

"What - Kyaaaaaaah!" Hinata let out a scream upon seeing the rather large ninja almost bearing down on her, a sword clutched in his fist. The man was too close for her to properly execute her favored technique, and a tree was blocking her path, so she couldnt' move backwards. She shut her eyes tight. And then, a strange pressure along her left side and she fell, unsure of what had happened for there had been no sharp pain indicative of injury. Slowly, she opened her eyes, and then gasped.

"Na...Naruto-kun..."

Standing where she had been moments ago was Naruto, a kunai held in each hand, blocking the sword's deadly downward path. The ninja looked none too happy at being interfered with, and he raised the lethal blade for a second try, with a different target. Now it was Naruto's turn to be caught off-guard.

Suddenly, the sword droppped, tumbling through the air to land, point-first, in the soft earth. The man who'd been wielding it clutched at his side as blood and viscera began to ooze out of the deep, yet almost invisible cut. Stunned, Naruto walked over to the girl beside him.

"H-Hinata...arigatou..."

"N-nan demo na, Naruto-kun..." she replied.

Behind them, the man finally keeled over, having breathed his last, gurgling breath.

"Hey, watch it!" Takao exclaimed, the blade of Hiromi's halberd missing him by mere inches as he jumped to avoid it.

"You're the one who has to watch where you're going; you keep getting in the way!" Hiromi yelled as she swung the spear over her head, effectively keeping the enemies at bay. No one wanted their head impaled on a whirling blade. "Now, Takao, while they can't get close!"

"Right!" The stormy-eyed teen produced several shuriken, and then flicked them at the surrounding ninja, using the wind to propel the weapons farther and faster than normal, as Asuma had taught him to. There were more than a few sickening squelches as the flying blades found their marks, tearing through flesh and bone and into organs and blood vessels.

"I'm not picking those up anymore..." Takao mumbled, eyeing the bloodied mess. Beside him, Hiromi had dropped the halberd and began using a discarded sword she'd found.

Suddenly...

"Everyone, get away!"

"Huh?" Takao and Hiromi turned around in unison to see Kai, his palm flat on the ground. "What in-"

"Duck and cover!" Sasuke yelled, reading what Kai was about to do as a bulging trail formed along the forest floor. It extended from where the slate-haired teen had placed his hand and ended in a steadily-growing mound where most of what was left of the Shikino rear guard had convened. The earth had also started rumbling slightly.

Neji, Max, Rei, and Sakura quickly ducked behind tree trunks, Naruto and Hinata crouched behind bushes, and Takao and Hiromi leapt up onto the highest tree branches. The mound was already half as tall as a man of average height.

"Katon: Bakuretsu Kazan no Jutsu!" Kai yelled.

In a flash, the mound exploded violently, sending flames and fiery chunks of earth rocketing upwards. These then rained down swiftly on the Shikino ninja who hadn't managed to get away in time. It was like a scene out of hell, only much closer and definitely more real.

"Remind me never to get on Kai's bad side," Takao whispered to Hiromi as he watched the dark ninjas practically roast to death.

Kai stood up, and Sasuke joined him. "So that's the other variation you were talking about before..." he said. Kai nodded. Suddenly, Sasuke leapt to side, flinging three large shuriken. Using the wire he had attached to them, the Uchiha guided the deadly windmills towards one particular tree.

"Sasuke, what are you doing?" Naruto yelled from across the clearing. "Sakura's behind that tree!" There was no need to be quiet now; the other hundred and fifty ninja had been alerted by the screams of their fellows. Hopefully, Kakashi and Yuriko would take care of some of these external units before they decided to go after the targets.

"I know that, dobe!" Sasuke replied. "Sakura, duck!"

There was a small "Eep!" as the jade-eyed girl complied, launching herself into the dense bushes nearby for good measure. She didn't want to think about how close she'd come to decapitation.

Then there was a squelch, followed by three thnks!, one after the other, as the shuriken buried themselves into the wood.

"That takes care of one..." Sasuke muttered as quickly performed the seals for his next technique. "Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu!" He expelled the fire from his mouth, watching dully as the flames hungrily ate their way across the wire. Then, two screams, sounding as one, pierced the relative silence as the fire found its target. Three of the Shikino ninja had been about to ambush Sakura, and this was the result.

A quick pull, and the giant shuriken cut through the wood and came flying back. With a creak, the huge tree fell over, its branches catching two more Shikino ninja in their wake and crushing them.

"Yikes..." Rei commented as he stepped out from his hiding place, eyeing the mangled bodies of Sasuke's latest victims. "Don't you feel any hesitation before killing?" he asked, out of curiosity. Before now, he'd never seen anyone bring death to a fellow human being with as little or no remorse as the crimson-eyed Uchiha had.

"Sometimes, yes," Sasuke replied, unsheathing the sword he had worn strapped to his back. "But in this case, its literally 'kill or be killed', so if I want to live, then I've no choice on the matter, have I?"

Ksh-kshkssssh----

"How is everyone holding up?"

"All teams intact, Kakashi-san," Neji replied, tapping the radio button again. He was seemingly oblivious to his cousin knocking down three men who were sneaking up on him. "What about you and Yuriko-san? What's your status?"

"Forty-five external units down, now approaching target," the silver-haired Jounin replied. "And what was that explosion back there? Sounded like a mini-volcano..."

"That was me, Kakashi-san," Kai answered this time. "Needed an excuse to try out my other technique..."

"Effectiveness?"

"Around twenty-five out of thirty units exterminated."

"Good. The last one hundred are headed your way, if Yuriko doesn't decide to take care of a few more. You guys still up to the challenge? Especially since Kai and Sasuke are expected to follow us in after a few minutes..."

"Hell yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. "We're ready, all right!"

A chuckle, sounding out of place in such a situation. "Well, then, good luck, all of you."

"Hai." Neji finished, then glanced over his shoulder at Hinata. "Hinata-sama, you knocked down those three, didn't you?" he asked, noting the three ninja on the ground.

Hinata blushed, smiling. So he'd noticed, after all! And though it may not have sounded like much, that was his way, she guessed, of complimenting her.

"All right everyone, you heard Kakashi," Sakura said abruptly. "We're dealing with twice the number of ninja we went up against earlier. We can't afford to slip up, now that we're so close to completing this mission."

There were smiles all around when they realized it was true; Mission: Take Down was nearly at an end. Whatever doubt there had been at the start now dwidled away to nothingness, leaving only confidence in its wake.

"Yoshi! Ikuzo, minna!"

"It's a little dark for a house, don't you think?" Kakashi noted as he and Yuriko crept through the halls. The 'tent' their targets had erected could hardly be called as such; apparently, someone among the four knew how to combine earth-style and water-style chakra to produce wood, and had used that knowledge to 'build' a small cabin without disturbing the trees nearby.

"I know, Kakashi-san," Yuriko replied as she peered around a corner. "Either they're all asleep - which I hope is the case - or they've set a trap-"

"That they're hoping we'll blunder into."

"Um-hmm..." Yuriko nodded. She pointed down one hallway. "There, Kakashi-san. That's the only room so far with its lights turned on."

"I hope we don't find ourselves in a washroom," Kakashi half-joked. The amethyst-eyed teen rolled her eyes good-naturedly. All the while, she and her mentor made their way towards the illuminated room. Suddenly, their headsets crackled to life, and Kai's voice came over the line.

"Yuriko, have you located the targets?"

"Not quite," the auburn-haired teen whispered into her set. "We've found an open and lit room, but no ID confirmation. Why'd you ask."

"It's going to take a while before Sasuke and I can get away to back you up," the slate-haired teen replied. "These men are...considerably harder to do away with..."

"Take your time. Targets are most likely cutting Z's, which will make it safer, and definitely easier. Just radio again when you and Sasuke are about to join us, give Kakashi and me some sort of warning that you're going in, so I don't cut your head off by accident."

"Copy that. Out." With that, the radios fell silent once more, and a heavy stillness hung in the air, somehow adding to the dark atmosphere.

"All right, Yuriko," the silver-haired man whispered when he and his companion reached the open doorway. "Here we go..."

Yuriko crouched, ready to launch herself into the room and at any of the four men whose deaths they had been tasked with. But, quick as a flash, Kakashi's gloved hand gripped her shoulder, and she stopped.

"Kakashi-san...?"

"Not all of them are asleep..." the elite nin said quietly. Yuriko peered around the doorway, gave a small, inaudible gasp, and then ducked back into the hallway.

"Looks like they were expecting the surprise after all..." she said through gritted teeth. Shinichi and Shinji were asleep, on seperate beds at opposite sides of the small room. Eiji and Keitaro apparently had first watch. The former faced the single window in the room, and the former faced the only entrance.

"Well, this makes it a bit more difficult, not at all what we expected..." Yuriko commented, hand gripping the hilt of her small sword.

"Let's wait for Kai and Sasuke to get in here. Either pair will serve as the distraction, while the other two handle the sleeping brothers, and then we'll all take care of Eiji and Keitaro," Kakashi instructed. Yuriko nodded, knowing there was no better way to do the job at the same time ensuring no one was gravely injured in the process.

Once more, the tiny radios crackled with static. Yuriko pressed her earpiece a bit further into her ear in anticipation.

"We know you're in there, Yuriko..."

Yuriko gasped, purple orbs widening considerably. Sweat broke out at her hairline, trickling slowly down her face and dropping, silently, onto the wooden floor. She knew that voice!

"Oh, no..." Kakashi whispered, dumbstruck.

"Won't you come join your friends here, outside?"

Yuriko grit her teeth, bounded into the room where she and Kakashi'd seen the targets. She aimed a kunai at the first figure, Keitaro. As it connected, it made a wooden sound.

"Stand-alone puppets..." Kakashi murmured when he heard and saw. "Darn it!"

Yuriko walked over to the window and peered outside. Sure enough, the four targets stood outside. All her teammates had been subdued - well, some were struggling, without much luck. She released an angry sigh, and then reached up to push the button that would enable her to converse with the person on the other end.

"Let them go, Keitaro!"

"There's really no need to get all flustered, Yuriko..." Keitaro replied. Through the rather misty glass, Yuriko could make out the dark ninja's face, leering at her from the gloom. Suddenly, a sharp, biting pain shot through her lower abdominal cavity, and she glanced down. Around three inches of shining steel winked up at her, a few parts obscured by a dark crimson liquid.

"After all, you're the only one we want..."

Crap! Yuriko thought. Another deception! There were only three dummies in this room; the Eiji in here is the real one... Then she gasped and clutched her side as the sword was pulled out. Quick footsteps coming towards her, and Yuriko whirled around just in time to see Kakashi hurled right back out of the room, slamming against the wall.

"Ka...Kakashi-san!" The amethyst-eyed teen made to rush over to the masked ninja, but Eiji blocked her way. He tried to land a sword strike to Yuriko's solar plexus, but she twisted away and ran out of the room. Pausing only to haul a semi-conscious Kakashi to his feet, she bounded down the hallway and out of the small cabin.

Outside was no better. The second she stepped out the house, two men she'd never seen before greeted her. Shinichi and Shinji. If not for the face that one was several centimeters shorter than the other, they could have passed for twins.

"Don't you think you ought to rest, Yuriko?" the taller one - probably Shinichi - said, smirking. "You're injured, after all..." Then he and his brother reached for her, but she dodged once more and ran over to her friends.

"Not a chance, Ugly!" she called over her shoulder. Dropping Kakashi gently on the ground, she slid to a half crouch and swept Keitaro off his feet, flinging him back towards where the brothers were standing. She was about to pick the half-conscious Jounin up again, but Neji beat her to it.

A few feet away, Sasuke spun in a half circle, the blade of his sword slicing deep into three ninja who, unfortunately, had stood too close for their own good. Rei was a stark green blur, performing his Explosive Tiger Fang on two Shikino clansmen, while around five lay on the ground, gasping - poisoned, apparently, thanks to Max. Takao was busy beating down two men using his bokken, and Hiromi stood a few feet away from him, flinging her chained scythe to keep attackers at bay. Hinata was fending off four ninja, who couldn't get close enough due to her Shugohakke Rokujuyon Shou, while Naruto was rushing two men, one bright blue whirling sphere in each hand. Thanks to Sakura, there was a new crack in the earth, and a few hands - and the occasional foot - peeked out from under the rubble. While the Shikino ninja were a sorry sight indeed, the ones from the Leaf weren't that much better; all had sustained varying degrees of injury.

But where's Kai? Yuriko thought, casting frantic glances left and right. The slate-haired teen wasn't anywhere in sight.

"You're looking for this one, aren't you?" Eiji remarked. He'd just emerged from the small house, it seemed, and he was dragging something along...

"No..." Yuriko's eyes were wide upon seeing the limp figure in the dark ninja's arms. Disheveled slate-gray hair hung in front of listless crimson eyes, mouth half-open as Kai took in slow, painful gasps of air. He was clutching his side, the ribs there apparently broken, and half of one arm had practically been sheared off, a bloody stump where the powerful forearm had been.

"This young man put up quite a fight..." Eiji continued. "Come to think of it, wasn't he one of the first who leapt to your aid when we first encountered you in Tokyo? The day you decided to return to Konohagakure?"

"Kai...!" Her voice louder now, the auburn-haired teen, forgetting her own injury, leapt up and ran towards the four men who held her dear friend captive. Never mind that doing so was the most idiotic thing to do and put her at risk. She was determined to free Kai and get him into medical care as quickly as possible. Sakura was already taking care of the others, and, despite her prowess as a medic nin, Yuriko doubted she could fix injuries as grave as these. Also, there was the matter of reciprocating what Eiji had done to the boy.

There was a dull thump as Eiji dropped Kai unceremoniously onto the ground. A low groan escaped the slate-haired teen's lips, and hearing this fueled Yuriko's rage. A battle cry beginning to build in her chest, one hand whipped to the sword at her hip. Then, all at once, Yuriko let out a great shout that made everyone stop in their tracks; so chilling was its sound. At the same time, she grasped the tooled handle and drew the blade from its sheath, swinging it out and away from her in a shining silver arc. Red liquid spattered onto the canvas of the night, staining the ground a dull scarlet where it fell in strange, grotesque puddles.

"Yuriko..." Hiromi whispered, ruby eyes wide. Her companions stood, mute, horrified at what had happened. There, mere inches from Yuriko's black-clad feet, lay the slate-haired head, mouth agape, staring up at the moonlit sky through sightless eyes.

Yuriko sank to her knees, dumbstruck at what she'd done in her recklessness, her desire for retribution. The wazikashi fell silently, and her hands flew to her mouth, trying to hold in the cries of anguish fighting to escape. "N-no..." she whispered, auburn hair flying back and forth as she shook her head, trying to clear her vision of the horrific sight, trying to convince herself it was a dream...a mere illusion, not stark reality.

But reality won.

"No...K-Kai...I'm...I'm so s-sorry...I-I didn't think...I d-didn't mean to..." Yuriko struggled to apologize, yet failing horribly.

Hiromi made to approach, to tell her it was all right, that it was an accident and that accidents happen, but couldn't, stumbling over her own feet and falling to the ground in the process. Dark gray circles suddenly appeared on her kimono top's sleeves, standing out against the lighter gray of the cloth, and a great sob escaped her throat. Takao walked over to her, placing a comforting arm around the distraught girl's shoulders, and Hiromi collapsed against his chest. The stormy-eyed teen remained mute. No one else spoke; no one else moved.

Suddenly, a blur of movement and, seconds later, Yuriko slumped into Keitaro's arms.

"H-hey!" Rei cried, the shock of seeing an unconscious Yuriko enough to snap him out of the other shock. "Let her go!" He drew a kunai from his weapons pouch and made to leap at the opposing ninja, when a sizzle of dark energy stopped him in his tracks.

"I'd think twice before attacking a comrade's captor, if I were you," said Keitaro, holding up Yuriko's short sword to her neck, the sharpened edge sharpened even further because of the dark chakra that enveloped it. "Wouldn't want a repeat performance of what happened to your friend there..." With a booted foot, he gestured towards the dismembered body.

"But you can't attack two people at once if you're preoccupied with a hostage, can you?"

"Time to go..." Shinji said suddenly. He and his companions, Yuriko in tow, quickly formed a small, rough circle, and in a flash of black light, they'd disappeared. A split-second later, there was a thump as something landed heavily on the forest floor.

"Darn it! I hate it when they teleport..."

Hiromi sat up abruptly, eyes brightening. She broke away from a very shocked Takao and ran over to the person who had just spoken.

"Kai!" she exclaimed as she flung herself at him, enfolding him in a hug. Kai's left eye twitched at the close contact, but chose not to react. Instead, he gently disentangled himself from Hiromi's arms.

"B-but...how?!" Max finally found his voice.

"W-we saw...Yuriko's sword...and then your head..." Naruto stuttered. It was no secret that the blonde jinchuuriki was freaked out at what he and his companions had seen and were seeing.

"That's not me," Kai said, his voice hard. "I'd jumped into the house through the window earlier, when Eiji first attacked Yuriko. I thought I'd take care of him then, since he was chasing her, but he had other ideas. He knocked me off my feet and then tied me up, saying something about me being the perfect bait for their 'prize'. He then left me in there, but I managed to free myself. Took me a while, though, and I made it out just in time to see Yuriko get knocked out. I tried to jump them a second time, but..." he shrugged, angry that the targets had slipped through his fingers.

"Anyway," he went on, fists clenched. "We have to find them! Now! Yuriko's with them, and-"

"No."

"Huh?" Takao glanced over his shoulder at Neji; it had been the first time during that mission Neji had not spoken quietly.

"Whether you like it or not, Kai-san, we can't go look for Yuriko-san now. First, we've no way of knowing where they went. Second, just the fact that they have her gives them the advantage, because they know we won't attack for fear of hurting her. Third, we've been awake almost the entire night, combat has used up most of our energy, and Kakashi needs medical attention that, unfortunately, Sakura cannot administer. If we hope to rescue Yuriko, then we must rest, even for just a few hours. We'll return to Konoha, even if it means reporting failure. Once we have a clear idea on how to locate and retrieve Yuriko, we can set out again, if you wish."

"Look, we have to-"

"Neji's right, Kai," Rei broke in, a calming hand on his former captain's shoulder. "We all know how powerful these guys must be for the Hokage to order their assassination. We're all tired, and we wouldn't stand a chance if we face them in this condition. We have to recuperate."

"Yuriko-"

"-will be fine." The neko-jin gave a tired but encouraging smile. "I doubt they'll want to kill her at once, because they could have done it easily while Eiji had her in his grip. Now, come on. We have to return to the village now...

"There's nothing more we can do..."

A/N: Oh, the drama... XP Typed this up late at night, so wasn't really sure if I got everything in...any violent reactions? XD Anywho, please feel free to tell me if there's anything you didn't understand in this chapter. I'll try to squeeze in an explanation in the next chapter, or send you a PM with the desired information. Oh, and this chapter's title is 'Nothing More Can Be Done' in Nihongo, in case anyone is wondering...

For some strange reason, my fics have been getting more and more violent (I think)...wonder what that implies?

Peace out and God bless!