The twelve Sasuke's quickly split into four groups, and each group headed in a different direction. Each squad took a group, but then eventually the different groups branched off, leaving each ninja by themselves chasing one Sasuke.

Kiba and Akamaru veered off to the left to follow a Sasuke, and Kiba looked to his right to see Hinata still heading straight, and Shino veering off to the right. "I hope they get clones..." he thought anxiously. "If Hinata got the real thing..." He shuddered at the thought, averting his eyes back to the Sasuke he was chasing. They hopped from branch to branch for a minute, until Kiba saw a clearing up ahead. Sasuke reached the clearing and hopped down into the center. Kiba landed a few feet away, and they faced each other.

"I'm ready when you are," Sasuke said with a smirk.

"Alright! Let's go Akamaru!" Kiba cried, throwing one of his smoke bombs in Sasuke's direction and pulling out a kunai. Both he and Akamaru charged towards the smoke, heading into it...and then out the other side. "Huh?" There was no sign of Sasuke.

Kiba heard a yelp and saw Akamaru go sliding across the ground. "Akamaru!" He rushed to Akamaru's side, and when he turned around to make sure Sasuke wasn't there, he received a roundhouse kick to the face. Kiba flew through the air and hit a tree. He blinked quickly and saw stars, then stood up, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. "There's no way...you have to be the real thing!" he exclaimed. Sasuke just shrugged.

"Akamaru, are you okay?" Kiba asked. He saw Akamaru stand up and slowly head over towards him. "Alright, boy, let's go! It's time to end this, whether he's the real thing or not!" Kiba made a few hand signs and then grinned at Sasuke. "Wolf Fang Over Fang!"

Both Kiba and Akamaru spun so fast Sasuke almost couldn't see them. In a flash the two spirals were heading towards him. He leaped to avoid the first one, looking back behind him to see Akamaru plow into the ground, and then turned back around to take Kiba right in the stomach.

Kiba came out of his spiral to see that he had made a hole straight through Sasuke's stomach. He looked back up at Sasuke's face and saw that he had his teeth grit and he looked like he was in extreme pain. "You haven't disappeared yet...you must be the real one! Oh Kami...I killed Sasuke..." Kiba muttered.

Sasuke shook his head roughly, slowly looking up at Kiba. "I was careless..." His lips slid upward into a smirk. With a poof and a puff of white smoke, he was gone.

Kiba wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad. At least Sasuke wasn't dead...but if this one was a clone, that only increased the chances that someone he cared about was facing the real Sasuke. He headed towards Akamaru to make sure he was okay, and then they both began the journey back to the other field.

.

Blue waves reverberated from Neji's hand as it made contact with Sasuke's skin. "I just cut off chakra to your left arm," he commented without stopping the assault.

Sasuke hissed in frustration and took out a kunai, blocking Neji's attacks with it. He used his other hand to pull out a shuriken, throwing it at the advancing Hyuuga. Neji quickly dodged it, but it still grazed the side of his leg and put a small cut across it.

"You're a clone. The real Sasuke wouldn't be this easy," Neji told him, pressing a point in Sasuke's right shoulder. "You can't even do hand signs now."

Sasuke growled and hopped high into the air, flipping over Neji and landing directly behind him.

"Byakugan. I can see you." Neji grabbed Sasuke's arm without turning around and flipped him over his shoulder. Sasuke collided with the tree and sat there for a moment. Neji stood over him. "You're even easier than Tenten."

He froze for a moment. Tenten. What if she had gotten the real Sasuke?

He felt a sharp pain at his ankle and realized that he had gotten distracted, and Sasuke had slashed at his ankle. It was now bleeding pretty heavily. Neji grit his teeth and looked from his ankle to a smirking Sasuke. He shook his head and aimed a kick with his other foot right at Sasuke's face. Sasuke disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Neji sat down with a sigh and began to unwrap the bandages on his hands and arms, reapplying them to his ankles. He looked around himself for any signs of life. "I wonder if the others found the clones this easy to defeat."

.

Ino aimed a kick right at Sasuke's stomach, but he quickly caught her foot and swung her around, eventually letting go and sending her flying. Ino quickly recovered, landing on a tree branch and glaring at him. "I can't use the Mind Transfer Jutsu without Shikamaru..." she thought angrily. "The only thing I can rely on is Tai Jutsu."

She hopped back down to the ground and charged again, and this time when he grabbed her foot, she swung the other one around to hit him in the back of the head. He fell forward on his hands and knees and she aimed another kick at his stomach. "If you were a shadow clone, wouldn't you be gone by now?" Ino asked.

"They're a little...ugh..." He took another kick from Ino in the gut. "...tougher than regular clones."

"Oh," Ino replied without relenting. This was beginning to look more like a mugging than a ninja fight. "So you're saying you're a clone?"

"No. I'm saying I could be." He coughed and a little blood came out. The next time Ino's foot connected, Sasuke grabbed it and sank his teeth into her ankle.

Ino jumped back, crying out and grabbing her ankle as Sasuke stood up. "You bit me!" She ran forward angrily and kicked Sasuke in the crotch. He fell down with a grunt, and quickly disappeared.

"Ugh!" Ino exclaimed, sitting down to examine her ankle. "I can't believe that asshole bit me!"

.

Kankuro quickly attached chakra strings to two of his puppets, controlling each one with a hand. Both puppets flew towards Sasuke, and he fought them off, landing kicks to the hard wood. Sasuke charged at Kankuro, landing a punch right at his face. And another. And a few more, until finally Kankuro's face began to crack.

"Wait, what?" Sasuke said, studying Kankuro's face. It began to break into more pieces, and eventually fell away. The thing on Kankuro's back came to life, unraveling and revealing the real Kankuro.

"You should have stayed away from my puppet, Sasuke." More chips of sand fell away until a whole new puppet was revealed. Sharp spikes protruded from its six arms, and Sasuke made a move to get away, but he was too slow. The six arms clasped around him, and the spikes stabbed into him at various places in his body.

Sasuke let out a loud cry and fell backwards...right into another of Kankuro's puppets. It closed itself quickly, leaving Sasuke trapped inside.

"I have orders to capture you, not kill you. But I could kill you right now if I wanted to. Listen, you can be a huge burden right now and not tell me whether you're a shadow clone or not, and in that case I'll have to drag you along everywhere I go. Or you could just let me know, and I'll take appropriate action from there. Got it?"

Laughter came from inside the puppet, along with some heavy breathing. "So in other words, if I'm the real one, you'll keep me in here, and if I'm a shadow clone, you'll kill me?"

"Pretty much. I'm surprised my other puppet didn't defeat you with all those spikes. That is, if you're a shadow clone."

"Sasuke's shadow clones have more chakra than normal, which I'm sure you already know, thanks to the Hyuugas. That means we're more powerful and we can take more hits without poofing away. Instead of fighting shadow clones, it's more like fighting a particularly weak person."

"So are you going to tell me if you're a shadow clone or not?"

"No, why on Earth would I do that?"

Kankuro sighed. "Alright then, let's go." He proceeded to drag the puppet along behind him, back towards the field.

.

Kiba arrived at the field just as Neji entered it from the opposite side. They met in the center.

"Shadow clone?" Kiba asked. Neji nodded.

With a loud thump, Ino landed on the ground next to them. "Oh, you got it in the ankle too?" she said to Neji, noticing his moved bandage. "That freak bit me!"

Kiba grinned at her. "So how did you guys defeat yours? I used Wolf Fang Over Fang."

"Kick to the face."

"Kick to the groin."

Kiba and Neji stared at Ino. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope!"

Before Neji or Kiba could reply, Kankuro walked up from behind them with his puppet.

"Oh, hey. You got a shadow clone too?" Kiba asked.

"I'm not really sure. Mine's being particularly stubborn," Kankuro told them.

Ino raised her eyebrows. "So...your Sasuke is in there?" She pointed to the puppet.

"Um...yes. I figured we're supposed to capture him, not kill him, so once I trapped him in my puppet it was either kill or not kill. And I didn't want to kill him in case it was the real Sasuke. And of course, he wouldn't tell me if he was a shadow clone or not. So I brought him here."

Ino bent over and peeked in through a slot in the puppet. "Aw! He looks so sad!"

Kiba stared at her for a moment, then looked over at Kankuro. "All you have to do is let him out, and we can punch him few times. Once he's beat up, we'll know if he's real or not."

"But if it's the real Sasuke, he'll try to escape. And we can't let that happen," Neji pointed out.

The three boys sighed and sat down, while Ino went to go grab a stick and poke Sasuke through the slots.

"Ow! That hurts!" Sasuke cried.

Neji looked over at Ino with interest. "Hey, keep poking him, Ino."

Ino shrugged. "Sure." She prodded him roughly with the stick.

"Hey! Stop it! That hur..." He disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Kiba grinned. "Well what do you know? It was a shadow clone!"

Ino frowned. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"All that's left to do is wait for the others. Whoever doesn't show up got the real one, and that person's teammates should have a pretty good idea of where they are. Then we can go help."

"Alright." There was a moment of silence. "Who do you think got the real one?" Kiba asked.

"I don't know. I just hope it's not Shikamaru!" Ino cried.

"I hope Tenten didn't get him."

"I hope it wasn't Hinata."

They all looked at Kankuro. "I don't really give a shit so long as I'm safe." Everyone glared at him. "Fine. I would prefer Gaara got the real thing, because Gaara could easily kick that psycho's ass."

Neji nodded. "You're probably right."

Kiba sighed and laid down, crossing his arms behind his head. "I guess now we wait."