Without Lee, Part 2

Invisible Attacker

Riku walked quietly along Sai. She found it quite nice to be with someone who wasn't loud and hyper active. He was really different compared to the others. "So, what are we doing today? Training?"

"No. We all have the day off. Naruto mention something about ramen…"

"Typical," Riku chuckled.

"I think Sakura was going to stop at the hospital for a while and Kakashi was going to do some reading."

"And we're doing what?"

"I would like to do some sketching in the fields. If that's alright with you."

"Of course. How long have you been drawing?"

"For many years now. I even use my sketches in jutsus."

"Lee mention that before. Will you show me?" The two stopped walking. Sai looked at her for a minute them pull out a scroll and his ink. She watched patiently as Sai sketched something on the paper then used his jutsu to bring the creation to life. Riku's eyes widened as a black ink chipmunk pealed itself off the page. The chipmunk then jumped over to her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek. "So cute!"

Sai's attention quickly turned back from the way they had walked. He narrowed his eyes, carefully scanning the area, looking for any kind of abnormality. A grey rabbit scurried out from a bush. It stopped and looked at the two teens before running off. "Thanks, Sai. It's…Sai? Is something wrong?"

"No. It's nothing. Just a rabbit," Sai gave her a small smile and the two started walking again. They soon found themselves in the open field. There was several different types of flowers in bloom. Sai found a good spot and they sat down. Riku watched Sai draw for a while then her mind wondered. She laid down on the ground and stared up at the sky. She didn't know how much time had past until Sai broke into her thoughts.

"Is something the matter?"

"No…Why?"

"You just sighed heavily."

"I…I'm just missing Lee. It's been four days since he left," Riku sat up and put her hands behind her, leaning on them. "I never thought that I'd miss him this much. My chest hurts when I think about him."

"You care really deeply for him, don't you?"

"Oh…well," Riku felt heat rising on her cheeks. "I care about him as a friend, of course."

"I think you care about him much more than that."

"How do you know that?"

"You said it yourself."

"What?! When did I do that?!" Riku asked with a bit of defense in her voice.

"You said your chest hurts when you think about him, right?" Riku nodded. "That is a sign that he means more to you than a friend."

"Hm," Riku lowered her eyes to the chipmunk sitting on her leg. As she pondered on what Sai had said she didn't notice him standing up and getting in defense mode until he went flying several feet away from her. "Sai!"

Riku jumped to her feet and tried to run after him, but something grabbed her wrist. She turned back and tried to get free. "What the?! Let go!"

Riku tried to kick her unseen attacker. But, of course, wasn't able to make contact because the enemy was invisible. The attacker gave a jerk on her arm, forcing her to stumble forward. Riku felt like she was moving in slow motion as she feel forward, fear gripping at her very soul and wishing Lee was with her right now.

All of a sudden the grip on her arm disappeared and she was draped over someone's arm. She blinked in a confused daze then looked up to see she was rescue by Naruto. "You alright?"

All Riku could do was nod as Naruto lifted her back up. She followed his gaze and found that two Naruto clones were holding on to her attacker. "Sakura! NOW!"

Naruto's voice cued Sakura to move in and try and hit the enemy. But the enemy was quick and kicked that Naruto clones away, causing Sakura to hit them instead of the attacker. Kakashi and Hinata then appeared out of no where. Kakashi tossed out some smoke bombs as Hinata called on her byakugan. The smoke revealed the outline of the attacker. Kakashi immediately charged at the enemy and exchanged a few punches and kicks. Hinata stayed back and kept an eye on the attacker.

"Sai!" Naruto screamed again. Sai quickly scribbled something on his scroll and called forth a bird creature. He jumped on the bird and flew over to Naruto and Riku. Naruto lifted Riku up to Sai. Sai took her and sat her in front of him. "Take care of her."

Sai nodded then took off into the sky as Naruto joined the battle. "We can't just leave them!"

"Don't worry, Riku. It's part of the plan," Sai said and took her higher.

"Plan?" Riku asked.

"Kakashi set this up. He wanted to try and draw out your attacker. We all made sure that we made it known that only one of us was going to be with you today," Sai explained. "Kakashi was hoping that this person would take this as an easy opportunity to try and attack you again. Everyone was then waiting for the attack to happen."

As the wind began to blow the smoke away from the battle field, Hinata started shouting out where the attacker was moving using the clock method. "Naruto! Nine o'clock! Sakura, two! He's too fast! Kakashi, twelve!"

Hinata gasped. "He's created shadow clones! There's about ten of them!"

"Darn it! Show yourself, you coward!" Naruto hissed.

"It's over," Hinata said when the clones and the real one took off. "I'm sorry. I couldn't keep up."

"Don't worry about it, Hinata. You did wonderfully," Sakura smiled at her shy friend. Hinata stood with her hands collasped in front of her.

"Sakura's right, Hinata. You did just fine. We've gather more information on this person than we had before," Kakashi said.

"Yeah. We now know that this person is defiantly a ninja," Naruto added. "And can use the shadow clones. There's gotta be some way to stop this person."

Kakashi went quiet after that. He shoved his hands in his pocket and glanced at Naruto then up to the sky where Sai and Riku were. Sakura also looked up and waved to them. "Hey! You can come down now!"

"Looks like it's over," Sai said just before Riku passed out on him. He put his arm around her shoulders, pressing her to his chest as he has his bird lower them back to the ground.

"I-Is she alright?" Hinata asked.

"She's fine," Sakura replied as Sai picked Riku up in his arms and banished the bird. She went a head and looked Riku over anyway then turned to Kakashi. "What now, sensei?"

Kakashi glanced at her then summoned Pakkun. The little pug greeted them when he appeared. "Yo."

"I want you all to stay at Riku's tonight. Pakkun, if anything happens come get me immediately," Kakashi ordered.

"What are you gonna do?" Naruto asked.

"I'm gonna go talk to Lady Tsunade about this attack. Maybe we can figure out someway to stop this person for good," Kakashi said then disappeared from them.

"Shall we get going then?" Pakkun asked.

"Yeah! Let's get something to eat! I bet we can get a free meal at Riku's place!" Naruto gave a cheesy grin.

"Naruto! Don't use Riku like that!" Sakura yelled.

"What?" Naruto pouted. "It's what friends do."

"Yeah right! You just wanna be cheep!"

"Hey!" Naruto protested. Hinata giggled at the arguing teammates as Sai quietly walked on and looked down at the girl in his arms. A genuine smile appeared on his lips as he watched her sleep.