As the bear and his rider, Karu, were closing the gap between their enemies, their enemies stopped to face them head on. Even the girl, Hitake, didn't have an ounce of fear shown on her face, she must've been confident with her guardian.

The lightning shinobi addressed Karu, "What is your name, shinobi of grass?"

"It's customary for you to disclose that information first," the Karu retorted.

"It's Takigawa Hibuko, call me Hibuko, village hidden in the clouds," he smiled, "You?"

"As if I'd tell you, Hibuko. Surrender the girl now; I don't especially want to hurt you."

Hibuko glared with his hazel eyes, sighed and said, "If you leave us alone I won't kill you."

Karu sneered and his vine tentacles retreated into his back and he formed three hand seals and chakra burst from his hands in an instant.

"Since you're about to die… I'll tell you my name: Furui Karu. Back to business: Nenten Tsuta no Jutsu!"

Hundreds of vines erupted from the packed soil of the path and from trees and roots and attempted to wrap themselves around Hibuko, the great arctic tiger, and Hitake. The tiger leapt into a tree with incredible agility and escaped the tangling vines.

Hibuko raised his right arm and bent his left and formed a basic hand sign to gather chakra, his raised arm glowed with chakra and clouds gathered overhead.

Karu gasped, he wasn't a normal Chuunin either, he was exceptionally powerful, like Karu. This will be interesting…

The vines were approaching Hibuko rapidly but as the clouds darkened overhead, Hibuko's hand steadily grew brighter. After a millisecond of complete silence, a moment that seemed much longer, an impossibly brilliant bolt of lightning erupted from the immense clouds and hit Hibuko's raised arm, the jolt shook his body but he didn't suffer damage as he transferred the energy into his other hand with shot the lightning into one hundred divided bolts and they burned a circle in the ground. The circle was engraved into the path and sparked violently, the vines that reached the circle combusted spontaneously and withered without touching the lightning shinobi.

"Another handy usage of my bloodline limit, eh?"

Karu smiled, he knew that Hibuko wouldn't be defeated with one of his less intense jutsus.

Hibuko saw that Karu had pulled out two strange weapons with utter confidence and knew that this was to be a fight, most likely, to the bitter death. Unless I can convince him that defending Hitake is for the greater good of the shinobi world.

The large weapons in Karu's hands were like kunai but they were conjoined with a wrapped handle in the center so that the blades emerged from both bases of the cylindrical handle. Each of the blades was at least two feet long, and including the handles, each weapon was at least four and a half feet long in total. They were cruel looking blades and from Karu's stance, Hibuko observed he could use them well.

Hibuko saw that this was a situation that called for his ultimate weapons, his family inherited dual katanas. The hand carved hilts of ivory depicted brilliant storms and lightning and as soon as he pulled the blades out of their sheaths, a chilly wind was whirling around the cold steel blades.

Karu charged with speed only known by shinobi, his dual giant double-bladed kunai-swords behind him and when he was a foot in front of his enemy, he brought one of his weapons in front of him to plunge into the body of Hibuko as he stood with a blade at en garde position and the other behind him ready to attack. The kunai-sword was lunged at Hibuko but suddenly a strong wind pushed his arm away with lunatic strength. Karu lunged his other arm at the wind protected Hibuko but after a few second of struggle it was forced back as well. Karu knew that his taijutsu wouldn't stop at that feeble stabbing attempt. His grim determination brought up on of his sinewy legs to assail the ninja. After his first kick was thrown aside he utilized his momentum to swing and twist his other foot at the ninja. When the second kick was blocked he corkscrewed his first foot to assault Hibuko again. His foot hit the shell of wind near the feet of the ninja, were the aegis was weakest.

Karu saw the brief weakening in the swirling air current and twirled his torso and again plunged his blade into the vortex. It penetrated, but was caught in a started hand of Hibuko. Despite the pain he felt from gripping the cold steel blade, he quickly pulsed a current through the metal. Karu winced and backed away from the ninja. Hibuko had retracted his wind shield and sheathed his katanas to block the stab from Karu. Why did I block with my hand and not my sword? Hibuko asked himself, the moment of battle had proved that his taijutsu skills and instinct weren't as good as they should be.

Karu back stepped along the muddy ground, finding a comfortable place to set up his defensive position.

"Tsuchi Shuriken no Jutsu!" Karu placed his hands in the seal of the Dragon and then the seal of the Bull. Fragments of rock rose from the packed dirt and launched themselves at Hibuko, who leapt behind a tree. The shurikens of earth lodged themselves into the tree but did no harm to Hibuko. Hibuko poked his head out from behind the tree but saw an approaching flock of shurikens. The Rainin ducked to avoid the flying metal and performed an outstanding series of hand signs.

"Ikazuchi no Kiba!"

Lightning spewed from Hibuko's hands and took the form of a fanged jaw as it flew at Karu. The electrical mouth rammed into the tree where Karu was previously standing, transforming that proud trunk into splinters.

Karu had rolled to the right and began a direct assault on Hibuko. In a mad flail of kunai blades (the knives were wrapped in cloth to ensure no electrical damage to the hands holding them), Karu reached a stalemate with Hibuko.

Okamazuki slashed his clawed forearm at the tiger who hopped up onto another, higher, thinner branch. The arctic tiger growled and then opened his fanged maw. From his throat came a thunderous roar that made the leaves of the trees blow away swiftly and the branch beneath Okamazuki snapped. The bear grabbed the branch above and swung himself up onto it and belched acid at the tiger. The acid burned away the tree branch were the tiger had just been, however, the white-furred beast was already in the air and landed on another branch.

In a majestic, deep voice the arctic tiger spoke, "Princess Hitake, are you alright?"

She responded in a swooned voice, "I'm… okay, Raimaru."

"Good, this will get intense, so hold on tight!"

The Raimaru's pupils dilated while his claws glowed like miniature slices of a sun. He leapt, like lightning, and landed, like thunder, on the branch next to Okamazuki. The bear back stepped and loosened the cork on the ceramic jar on his back and mud slid out quickly and formed a glob around the tree branch.

The tiger crouched after seeing the mud but lunged at Okamazuki since the mud stayed still. While Raimaru's back was turned, the mud quickly formed the image of Karu.

The bear chuckled, "Tiger, I don't really want to kill you… But I can't speak for Karu…"

The tiger looked back at the mud, which now was a perform mud clone of Karu.

"You see, if I ever was in tight situation, I carry mud around on my back, mud that forms into Karu to help me out, see?"

As Karu's mud clone formed hand seals the tiger slashed viciously with his claws…

Karu quickly shifted his hands so that one of his blades was blocking both of his opponents as he formed single hand seals. He felt the viscous liquid form in his throat, he waited until he had the exact, perfect amount and spit the purple liquid with all his force at Hibuko's face.

It hit his eyes and Hibuko immediately released his weapons. He clutched his sizzling face and fell over backwards on the roots of a tree.

Karu pulled two shurikens with wire from one of his numerous pouches inside his coat and threw them past the tree Hibuko was leaning on, so when he pulled on the wires, they jerked back and circled the limp figure against the tree. Karu pulled the wires tight and leapt at Hibukan.

Karu grinned and stood in front of the captured lightning ninja, "So, this is the best the village hidden in the clouds can produce? Disappointing."

Karu's pupils contracted as he saw what two things lay on the ground on both his right and left. Explosive Tags! They were smoking already; Karu realized he didn't have time to get away so he braced himself for the impact of the explosion but none came. Instead he saw two bolts of electricity bolt out of the tags and surround him. They drew tight around his arms and torso and he noticed they took form of two dragons. He winced and fell on the floor; his bones were about to snap when they finally stopped constricting.

Hibuko lifted his head and through his hair his hazel eyes glinted, "Now, let's talk."

Karu was shocked at what he had just heard, but Hibuko was rejoicing that he didn't have to kill him; he had actually started to enjoy his company. If only Hibuko could convince Karu to join his mission.

"Why did you take this mission?"

What, is this an interrogation? Karu thought but said, "An order from my leader, why else?"

Of course Hibuko thought, slightly relieved, if this isn't personal I can still sway him."

"Release your bear and I'll release my tiger, they won't do either of us any good"

"Very well, Okamazuki! Kai!" He shouted into the distance.

Hibuko did the same; they heard the faint poof in the distance as their blood-bound animal partners teleported back to their homes.

"Do you feel especially compelled to kill Hitake?"

"None other than to fulfill my mission."

"Do you know why your leaders and three fourths of the shinobi world want her captive?"

"No."

"They want her dead because her father is an extremely important figure in the balancing of the powers within the shinobi countries. If a country had his daughter in their custody he would be easily manipulated to make a decision that would benefit a single country.

"The world of shinobi should be a place of peace. As you know, approximately five years ago, an individual by the name of Lord Orochimaru strived to invoke war upon the shinobi world because he thought that war was the only reason shinobi improved themselves."

Lord Orochimaru, that brings back a lot of memories, Karu thought while Hibuko blabbed on about world peace.

"However, the shinobi way of life is a form of art, not of war. It will be preserved whether it is times of war or times of peace."

"Yes, I see know. But don't even ask me to join you."

Oh, no… Hibuko thought, what part of my logic didn't appeal to him?

"No need to ask me, I already agreed," Karu smiled.

What?

"I knew from the second you started using logic against me that you wanted me to join you and I already thought it over and decided I would. I have a personal connection with my leader, the Kusakage. I know that he doesn't always pick the most… morally sound missions. I knew from the start that this was walking the line and I've weighed it over and will your team to protect… Hitake, is it?

"I will deal with my leader after the mission to explain. However, I have one condition…"