'Sup

Not much to say really, have a chapter

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The day of the race was a normal day, a hidden buzz floated around the citizens. Excitement, anticipation. Max could feel it in the air. She sat on the roof of the hotel writing on a scroll, for safety she was writing in German, team 7.5 had a decent grasp of English and she didn't want them to be reading.

"Writing a note saying you're leaving again?" Max heard Naruto ask bitterly. She looked up to see him attempting to read it upside down.

"I'm not leaving, I don't leave in the middle of a mission"

"But afterwards is fair game right? Why have you written it in a language I don't know? Is it so we have to get Laura to translate so you can have a head start on us?" Naruto accused. Max felt slightly guilty about filing the idea away for if she ever needed it.

"What's got you so paranoid?" she asked, she figured she would have this conversation at some point. Now was probably the best time. She wasn't sure why he had waited though.

"You're different,"

"People change Naruto, sometimes there are events that change who you are, it can be subtle, or people barely recognise you from who you used to be," Max explained.

"What happened to you to make you change?"

"Something I'd rather not share"

"You never kept secrets either," Naruto spat sourly. Max didn't bother to correct him, she'd kept secrets, just a lot better so he didn't even know she had them.

"Ok, how about this: imagine Sasuke made a Chidori and shoved it through your chest. How would you feel?" Naruto looked thoughtful and was about to respond but Max cut him off. "Now imagine, that before then he had promised never to use it on you." Naruto once again started to speak. "And finally imagine he wasn't in control of his own actions at the time." Max felt slightly guilty about using that as an example. While it had never happened here, only in the series she had watched, it still felt wrong to use it as an example. This time Naruto stayed thoughtful for longer. He then looked at Max.

"I don't… I don't know how I would feel," he admitted. Max sighed, she didn't want to leave the situation half explained.

"Bonus for you, add this to the situation you're imagining. Imagine that you'd had a choice about whether to get into the situation which led to all of this, knowing full well what would happen"

"Is this how you feel?"

"Sometimes. I think we should go to the dock, the race should be starting soon, Sasuke's probably bored of tailing Idate, if you want we can talk more later, but for now you need to keep you mind on the mission." Both ninjas moved, heading towards where the race would begin. Seconds later another person appeared in their place, watching them leave but not being noticed. It took almost unnatural stealth skills to stay hidden from both Max and Naruto but this person had watched for so long, he knew how to stay under the radar.

The trio of ninjas stood a few steps behind Idate. The gates in front were shut, when they opened the race would be on. The opposing clan's runner sneered at them before getting ready to run. Max frowned, wouldn't he have a guard because of her teams obvious presence in the race.

The gates opened and the two runners headed out. The team followed Idate as he ran north towards the forest instead of to the boat Max could now feel people following them, expanding her senses showed there had been ninjas waiting in the other clans boat. It wasn't hard for Max to keep up with Idate, Sasuke and Naruto seemed to be racing each other more than just trying to keep up. Idate seemed to loose focus, he still ran but wasn't paying attention Max felt something fuzzy on her skin and out of instinct activated FA. Until Max slapped him around the back of the head.

"Pay attention idiot, you should be able to recognise a genjutsu," she hissed. She pushed some chakra into him to dispel it, knowing that the other two should know to dispel it on their own. She kept an eye out just in case, on the off chance they didn't notice. Max was painfully aware of the fact she didn't know just what they could do anymore.

She noticed Naruto speed up to join her and motion for her to slow down to Sasuke. She did so, wondering what Sasuke wanted.

"No civilian could go at this speed," he muttered so not to let it carry. He didn't want anyone watching to hear.

"I know, he isn't"

"Why is he here then?"

"I have no clue." They couldn't talk much more as they reached a small jetty with a boat waiting for them. Max decided to take this time to catch up on what had happened, the boat didn't need that much attention.

"You're team participated in the last chunin exams, Hoshi even passed. The fights were pretty good," Sasuke admitted grudgingly, like most Uchiha's he had an unconscious desire to show off, because of the invasion he hadn't been able to. He was a bit jealous, and the jounin exams were a mostly private thing.

"I never had a team, I just baby sat them. It can't be as great as my fight though"

"You didn't get to fight much, the invasion happened before your second match," Naruto said, the guy had forfeited, no one really knew why.

"Second chunin exam remember," Max reminded them.

"What did you have for the first part of your first exam then? Anything compared to Ibiki's dramatic mind screw"

"Ibiki? Ibiki Morino?" Idate asked interrupting. Something clicked with the trio.

"Is he your brother?" Naruto inquired. Max was mentally berating herself, Louise had told her about her work mates and remembered Ibiki's brother getting mentioned as a kind of goof ball. Everyone was interrupted from what ever thoughts by a crossbow bolt hitting the mast where Max had been standing seconds ago. More bolts flew, some with ropes attached. Another vessel drew up beside them the ropes clearly originating from it.

"Wooden ships burn, right?" Max asked rhetorically, a glint in her eye, it seemed to be infectious.

"Naruto guard Idate," Sasuke ordered and started the seals for one of his more powerful fire jutsus.

"Give me five seconds and the boat will be a lot more flammable," Max requested, leaping onto the other boat as she unsealed something. Max removed a crate of jars and carefully placed them. Sasuke had been holding the last few seals for her. She jumped back and motioned for him to finish.

"What is that?"

"Just aim for it." Sasuke finished the last seal and let loose aiming for the jars which exploded tearing a hole through the wooden boards. "Ah, nitroglycerin, gotta love the stuff," Max grinned. "We need to sped this up, either we can all water walk or we can swim, this boat is going too slowly"

"What would you recommend?"

"Walking, then the cold water won't affect your performance, I would prefer no one gets a cold, I remember the last time I had one." Last time was when everything had gone down hill.

"I, uh, can't water walk, I never quite got it," Idate admitted sheepishly. Max sighed, one of them would have to carry him, it was not going to her, last time she had carried some guy for a mission they had groped her. In fact she had requested no missions with adolescent boys. Max then realised what could quite possible be one of the reasons Tsunade hadn't told her what the mission was.

In the end Naruto took him, he had the largest chakra supply so the extra weight would barely dent it. Max half wished Haku was there to make it into ice so she could skate.

Running fast, skimming the top of the water, shortened the crossing by about an hour. As they approached the shore Max signalled for the other two to get further down the coast line and keep going. Someone was ahead, possible waiting for them, she needed to see if they were friend or foe.

She reached the rocks that made up the waters edge and saw another person she hadn't seen in a while. Only he was wearing a different head band, he had defected.

"Aoi"

"Max"

"I take it you're here to stop my runner"

"You always did seem to bond with your client, but yes, killing you and your team will just be a bonus. You have quite the bounty on you head"

"I'm also a Sannin, you think you can take me and my team? I'm no push over and the guys, well, even I wouldn't want to annoy them." Max dodged the small glint that headed towards her. "Sebon? Against me? For shame. I must make a guess and say that they are poisoned, anything less and I would be insulted." She dodged a few more needles directed at her. "You never were a good ninja"

"Not all of us are like you"

"True, I am unique"

"I have a unique weapon to make up for it," Aoi said, drawing a sword hilt, light emerged from it, forming a blade made of lightning.

"You stole that," Max accused, she knew that sword. Aoi chuckled.

"Idate did, I just took it off him." Max was going to have words with Idate. For now she was going to vent. She had initially liked Aoi when he was a chunin. She lit her hands and darted forward. Aoi dodged swinging the sword which Max ducked under.

As the fight progressed they managed to move it inland, Max realised Aoi was trying to direct the fight to where she could feel the other three were, she wondered why they weren't moving. A wave of horror washed over her as her mind jumped to conclusions, none of them good. They were supposed to still be going on, there was a race to finish, they were strong, nothing should have stopped them.

She had to stop Aoi from getting to them, she wasn't sure how good their reflexes were and she was sure none of them were resistant to poisons. They came to a gorge a rope bridge connecting the two sides. Max wanted to make this quick and simple. So she kicked Aoi, over the cliff face and into the other side with enough force to leave a crater. It had broken her attack pattern, she had previously been just throwing punches so the kick had been completely out of the blue. She then dashed over the bridge heading towards her team and client.

She had made a very basic mistake, she had assumed Aoi would be out for the count. As she ran to the cave the guys were in Aoi fell out of the crater, he knew there was no point trying again, he needed to report this though. He stood as best he could and hobbled as best he could towards where his client would be.

Max reached the cave she was even more alarmed, they were no traps or even a genjutsu to hide the entrance. Smoke was visible seeping out through the mouth of the cave. Maybe she should give them a scare, she henged into Aoi and sauntered in calmly.

She immediately noticed Idate's bandaged foot. While normally it was an unusual target, in this situation it was understandable because of the race. She wondered how he got it, no one else had been around.

One more step towards them got their attention.

"Max?"

"Your little Sannin friend couldn't be here, such a pity too," Max chuckled using Aoi's voice. The effect was immediate as flashes of metal flew towards her, she managed to dodge most of them, one nicked her shoulder and another was almost impaled into her stomach, she held it just a few millimetres form her skin where she had caught it. "I'm disappointed in the three of you, no traps waiting for me or even an alarm." Max noticed Sasuke giving her a critical look, then the activation of his Sharingan. She knew her game was up.

"Stand down, Max is just fooling with us," Sasuke announced, Max pouted then dropped her Henge.

"My points still stand, what are you doing here, you should be running"

"Aoi left some caltrops further down the shore, more inland, we didn't notice and Idate managed to stand on one," Naruto explained, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Max sighed, they still needed to get moving the cave was not safe.

"Have you checked it for poison?" Max asked, the three chuckled nervously.

"Why are you making rookie mistakes?" She checked Idates foot, she could see his veins darkening, it was poison. Max panicked, she hated dealing with poison, it was too far in to bleed out. She quickly untied the bandage that normally covered her ANBU mark and tied it tightly around his leg to stop the poison from getting further. Time was of the essence here and unsealing something would have wasted precious seconds.

"We were kinda worried about you, I mean you got caught by that flimsy genjutsu when you got back-"

"This is why before any mission the teams should spar, so they can know just what they're working with" Max grumbled, she tried to remember if she had any antidotes on her, she had a sinking feeling that she had left that particular scroll behind. The guys could hear her grinding her teeth in annoyance until suddenly she stopped and reached into the back of her mouth.

"What-" Naruto was interrupted by Max holding up a hand, she did not want to pull out the wrong tooth. A sharp tug resulted in Max holding up a tooth in triumph. "How is that going to help?" Naruto asked sceptically, saying what the others were thinking. Max responded by pulsing chakra into it causing it to break open and something inside expand.

"Surely you two recognise a bezoar when you see it," she grinned.

"You keep a bezoar in a false tooth," Sasuke deadpanned. She shrugged as she began to prepare it

"I don't always have all of my stuff, like now, I left some things behind to prove I would return," she said looking pointedly at Naruto. She finished treating the poison and rebandaged the foot. "Unfortunately moving that leg and too much exercise in general will only help the poison spread further, while the bezoar is fast acting, the poison may kill you before the bezoar can cure you, someone's going to have to carry you again"

"I'll take him," Sasuke offered, Naruto had done plenty, it was his turn. Max nodded and they exited the cave.

Idate was not out of the race yet.

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The next chapters going to be interesting, a new twist that I bet no one will see coming.

Then naturally more twists will follow.

Review please