Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 3: Sub Rosa

"Oh God…ugh… head…" Moriko groaned groggily, clutching her head.

"Moriko-chan, are you okay?" Naruto asked, leaning closer to her face.

"No, I'm not okay. I think I got a concussion." She said, knocking her head a little with her knuckles. Moriko looked around. "Huh? Where are we? What happened to the plus-sized guy?"

"Oh, don't worry. Chouji is handling him right now." Shikamaru said with a smile. A doubtful smile.

"Chouji? I should go back to him. What if he gets hurt?" She struggled and realized she was riding someone's back. She stared at thr long hair in front of her and the pale arms that were wrapped around her legs behind him. "Thanks, Neji. You can put me down now."

"Mm." Everyone paused as Neji carefully let her off of his back and onto the ground.

"What do we do from here on, Shikamaru?" Moriko asked, trying to keep her balance on the tree branch.

"Chase our enemies." He replied nonchalantly.

"We won't stop until we get Sasuke back. That's what I promised to Sakura-chan." Naruto said in a determined face before punching a fist in the air. Everyone looked at him strangely.

"Yeah, yeah. We know, Naruto. You and your promises." Kiba teased.

"Back to the mission, guys. I'm pretty sure they haven't gotten that far yet. They're probably within 100 or 200-meter radius. Neji?" Neju nodded at him and activated his Byakugan.

"Byakugan!" Everyone kept silent as Neji turned his head from side to side, carefully scanning the entire area. A minute later, the veins on Neji's temples disappeared. "No traps, Shikamaru."

"I have a plan."

"Oi, Jiroubo! What took you so long?" Tayuya asked, noticing that Jirobo had already catched up behind them.

"Sorry. The girl was a bit of a distraction. It took some time to--"

"Fatass! Don't waste time. Hurry up and carry the barrel. That's your job, you peice of shit." Tayuya cursed as she passed the barrel to Kidomaru.

"Alright." The three remaining sound-nins stared at each other then glared at Jiroubo.

"What's wrong with you? You seem to be very obedient today, huh?" Tayuya smirked.

"What do you mean?" Jirobo turned his attention away from the barrel and onto Tayuya.

"I can't hand this to you." Kidoumaru said as she threw the barrel back to Tayuya. "Since you're not Jiroubo!"

"Let me handle this." Kidomaru smirked and nodded off Sakon and Tayuya.

With a poof, Jirobo was gone. The smoke cleared out and revealed the lazy genius crouching on the tree branch.

"Jiroubo never forgets to warn Tayuya about her foul mouth." Kidoumaru spread out his four extra arms, signaling another fight.

"Heh, I see." Shikamaru smirked giving him a small test with a kick, which Kidomaru easily blocked with his arms. As he blocked the blow with first arm, he used his second arm to grab Shikamaru's feet and fling him like an object.

"Ninpou, kumo shibari! " (Ninja art, Spider web bind)

"What the--?!"

"Ninpou, kumo soukai! " (Ninja art, Spider opening)

Kidomaru turned to look at his captured enemies. A bunch of Naruto's clones were stuck on his gigantic lattice and Neji, and the others on the other hand, was stuck inside a human cocoon. Kidomaru smirked in excitement as he threw several kunais simultaneously at Naruto's bunshins. As the smoke cleared out, Kidomaru's smirk grew widers as he could see only one Naruto left.

"So only one left huh?" He threw a kunai at him and to his surprise, the real Naruto he assumed to be disappeared with a poof. "What the–?!" His eyes widened and looked around swiftly looking for the real one.

"Neji? How did you--? Hey, thanks." Naruto turned as his cerulean eyes met with those light lavender, pupil-less ones. He saw himself out of danger, for the moment, and into the safe grasp of his comrade.

"No, thank you for giving me enough time." Naruto's bunshins were enough distraction to stall Kidomaru. While he was busy launching kunais on Naruto's copies, Neji had taken the chance to cut through Kidomaru's chakra-made cocoon with his own sharp, thread-like chakra.

"Huh?" Kidomaru turned around to see that all of them had sneakily vamoosed his web.

"Now, go! I'll handle this." Neji stared penetratingly at his opponent. He felt like he was gonna face a tough challenge on this one.

"A-are you sure?" Shikamaru got into slight a tizzy. He got worried; knowing that Chouji hasn't even returned yet, Neji may not too.

"Shikamaru, I want to stay with him this time. I'll be out if the way if Neji wants to fight him alone. I just want to ensure his safety." Moriko reasoned out and looked pleadingly in Shikamaru's eyes who shook his head in disagreement. Moriko sighed inwardly.

"No, you will stay with us."

"But-"

"If you want the safety of the team, then don't you think three people are more important than one?" Moriko stared at her teammates and realized that he was right. She knew she shouldn't be selfish and stick with only person, knowing that she was suppose to help protect the team, not an individual.

"Let's go!"

"Hey, wait! Takku!" Moriko called out but did they not stop, thinking that she'll probably catch up with them within a second. "Hey, I said wait!" Moriko threw her fan at Shikamaru, hitting him square on the head, who looked backed at her with an irked expression on his face.

"Shikamaru, wait. Neji, your hand please." Neji looked at her curiously as he held his hand out. Moriko put a hand above his, emitting a green chakra around it. "I wanted to replace the chakra you used a while ago to free us. There." Moriko grinned then winked at him. "Don't die, okay? Or else you'll make Tenten cry!" Neji smiled slightly to himself as Moriko waved before catching up with the others.

"Let's go." Shikamaru could only pray and hope that both Chouji and Neji will come back to them complete and alive.

"Moriko?" Naruto bent down and looked below Moriko's face. "Oi Morikooooo You're spacing out, is something wrong?" Naruto waved his hand at her face, wondering about her peculiar behavior.

"Huh? What were you asking?" She blinked and woke herself up from her short stupor.

"I was asking if you brought food with you."

"Uh… No, I didn't bring any-- HE DID IT!!" She blurted and shot a happy look at Naruto before slapping him hard on the back.

"Huh?! Who did what?" Kiba quirked an eyebrow as he exchanged looks with Akamaru "Arf!! arf!"

"Yes, you're right Akamaru. Neji finally brought down that Oto-nin." Kiba smiled as he patted Akamaru's head and exchanged glances with Moriko who grinned at him.

"He did? Neji is still alive… right?" Shikamaru eyed the two with a fretting look. "Don't worry Shikamaru, he's definitely alive." Moriko beamed her remarkable goofy, Cheshire cat-like grin. Shikamaru finally felt relieved and felt like he could give a relaxed smile.

"How did you know, Moriko? Akamaru and I can tell because of our noses but you… Did you understand what Akamaru said just now?"

"Actually, I really didn't understand what Akamaru said." She grinned sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head. A habit she got from Naruto and Sakura. Idiots. If only they weren't in a tree, they would've fallen down already. But that's dangerous, so they decided to stick with sweatdrops.

"Right. Then how come you know he's alive?" Kiba continued to interrogate her.

"That's because I've marked them with the Scent Marking Technique. Can't you and Akamaru smell it" Kiba nodded. " I see. Earlier, I could smell two kinds of a whiff scent. The first one smelled redolent and the other one really stank. It's been bothering me but the stinky smell disappeared slowsly and the only thing I can smell now is a faint redolent in the air."

"That's right. The sweet scent was Neji and the stinky one was the Oto-nin. His scent must've vanished because he's… well, probably, dead. I can still smell Neji's, but it's kind of faint so I'm worried. I'm pretty sure he's badly injured, if we don't get back to him--"

"You're pretty useful aren't you, Moriko?" Kiba and Naruto smirked. " Useful?" Moriko snapped. "What the hell? Do you think I'm some kind of object?!" Veins popped out as she yelled at them.

"I actually meant that as a compliment…" Naruto grinned. "Well, you could've rephrased it into something that doesn't sound insulting!" Naruto sweatdropped as she stuck out her tongue.

"But I was wondering, where'd you get all those techniques Moriko-chan?" Naruto asked, arousing everyone else's curiosity.

"Uhm… ah, you don't need to know." She started to twiddle her fingers against each other. Dammit, I must've gotten this from Hinata she thought. She wondered why she's often easily influenced by the people around her when it comes to habits.

"Why not?"

"Because--! Just because I don't want to. Hmph." The three stared at each other, even more curious.

"Arf! arf!" Akamaru barked. "Oh yeah, she's hiding something alright." Kiba smirked.

"Really? Well, we'll find that out sooner or later." Naruto laughed evilly at the high-strung Moriko.

" Well, hey Kiba, I'll tell you now that you will not--"

"Really? Trust me, I will." Kiba's smirked widened and gave Moriko the urge to punch him right through his face and call him a "flea-bag". Cocky little bastard. She thought, sighing.

"Fine, wanna bet?"

"Sure. I'll find out what that secret is anyway. So let's see… how 'bout, you do all the work for us for three days straight?" Naruto cheered and Shikamaru smirked.

"Fine, then. But if you don't find that out after this mission, all four of you, including Akamaru, will be my lovely menservants for a whole week. And no complaining allowed!"

"A week?!" Naruto exclaimed. Shikamaru sighed and mumbled a "How troublesome…", Kiba glared at her. "That's not fair, compared to only three days." Moriko grinned evilly out of amusement. "I offered the bet and I won't go back on my words. And guys doesn't do that either." She teased with a matching taunting finger in his face. Kiba frowned then smirked, "Fine. It's a deal." Moriko's grin grew wider. It's fun being a girl. "Yep. It's a deal alright."

And then, the infamous awkward silence came over the group. Shikamaru then remembered a question he had always wanted to ask.

"Hey, Moriko. I heard you call Godaime-sama and Shizune-sensei ane once. Why is that?"

"Ah… well…"

- Flashback -

"Tsunade-nee, Shizune-nee," Moriko called out as she spread her hands wide open for both women to see. The two smiled and took the herbs that they have asked for from her open hands.

"Moriko, we keep telling you that you can't call us that out in the public." Shizune reminded her ever so gently.

"Why not?"

"Because people might think you have no manners openly calling us like that. I'm the Godaime remember?" Tsunade explained slowly.

"But people know we hold a special relationship with each other, surely they'd expect something like that right?"

"Well, gossips are born from issues like that. Whether you like it or not, you will not is address us like that. It's as simple as that." End of discussion.

- End of Flashback -

"Are you sure you heard me correctly?" Moriko laughed nervously. "I don't remember—"

"I'm sure." He answered sternly and turned to Kiba, "You were there too, right?" Kiba nodded.

Oh crap… two people are against me. "Oh, I heard that too!" Naruto seconded the motion. Make that three… Ugh. Me and my big mouth.

"You know, you're pretty lucky, having a sannin slash hokage as your trainer." Moriko nodded. Well, that's sort of true. As Tsunade's student, people would surely expect a lot from her. Awesome. Huh--? Wait, no! Not awesome! That's hard!

"You guys are student and teacher. No big, right? Addressing her like that. We just wanna know…" Naruto grinned. "If you tell us we promise we won't tell anybody. Only the three of us will know. Right, guys?" Shikamaru and Kiba just nodded. You can't hide the fact that their curiosity was almost leaking.

"I can't, okay?" Moriko blinked as an idea lit the light bulb. "Unless, of course, you wanna make another bet?" Gossips? Who cares about that? I don't think a simple thing like that should be harmful. It's just a simple suffix. Nothing big. Moriko thought carelessly.

"You know, I think you've been influence by Tsunade-baa-chan. She's always gambling and drinking. But she sucks a lot. Sometimes I wonder where she gets all the money for that." Naruto stuck out his tongue."Well, at least I don't suck. I think. So… deal or no deal?"

"Bring it on." Kiba answered as Naruto nodded enthusiastically. Shikamaru sighed and muttered a "Girls are so troublesome…" but nonetheless agreed with the two.

"Alright then. If you losers won't be able to convince or discover why I call them ane by the end of our mission, you will all serve me for a month! Including the one week deal." Moriko's eyes glinted.

"A month and a week?! But that's too long. No fair…" Naruto pouted.

" I agree to that but I accept. Although, if we do find out, you'll be serving us for a month too." Shikamaru said with a smirk. " Fine… fine. Besides you won't win anyway." Moriko's heart pounded. She just realized that she was dealing with a genius. Well, he's lazy. So I don't need to worry. Right? Moriko asked herself anxiously.

"Hmph. Don't get too cocky." Kiba warned her.

Then all of a sudden, Kiba's serious look came back. He sniffed a couple of times as his brows furrowed. "They're close at hand!"

"Shikamaru, what do we do now?"

Rewritten: April 25, 2008

Reviews are looovveee xD So this chapter turned out kinda lame. It's kinda… random. Specially the near end part. Sorry, but I think I have some attention-span issues. I tend to add in tidbits of random stuff in the middle of the fic and they don't really follow through the story. Besides forgetting my own plot, I think this one's trouble too.