Thanks again for all of the reviews! Sorry for taking awhile to update. I was having some computer problems. But now, it's summer! So, I'll have more time to write.

Last time: Sakura and Hinata save the four boys after their battle with the four masked girls. They claim Ino and Tenten are dead, and that they escaped from Orochimaru. Now, there's an explosion on one side of Konoha. Naruto heads there, meanwhile, Sakura and Hinata are acting strange…

Well, enjoy! Oh yeah, and Neji comes back in this chapter. I know he didn't show at all last time.

Hinata looked ahead to Sakura who was slowly getting ahead of her. "Saku-" Hinata tripped and fell on her stomach, causing dust to fly up around her. Sakura whirled around. "Hinata!"

She ran back to her friend and offered her hand. "Hinata, we need to hurry."

"I'm sorry," she used the hand offered to her and stood up. She dusted off her clothes and looked to her friend. "Do you think this will work?"

Sakura stopped to think. "I hope so…but we'll just have to find that out on our own."

"I really hope so too."

The two girls looked ahead and saw their cue. Another girl motioned to them from around the corner. "Everything's going according to plan," she winked and held a thumbs up.

Sakura and Hinata ran towards her.

-

Naruto sprinted quickly as the smoke from the explosion grew. "Hinata, we're almost-" He turned around to see nobody following him. "Hinata?" Naruto turned his head in all directions. "Hinata?" He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hinata!" Where'd she go? He looked to the smoke, than turned away from it. I have to go find her. He began to run back to where he came from, but stopped when he felt a hand around his wrist. He jerked back and almost tripped. "Umph!"

"Naruto, what's going on?" Naruto turned around to see Sasuke standing on front of him. "I don't know," he shrugged and pulled away his wrist quickly. "It was some kind of explosion. Now I have to go." Sasuke took hold of his wrist and stopped him again. "The explosion is that way," he said while pointing his thumb towards the smoke."

Naruto again jerked his wrist away and scowled. "I know that. I just have to take care of some-" his jaw dropped.

"Sasuke, did you hear that?"

"Yeah…"

Naruto clenched a fist. "It was Hinata's scream…Hurry Sasuke!"

He bolted off towards the black clouds. Crap, how could I have lost her?"

"Hey, Naruto…" Sasuke looked towards him.

"Hm?" Naruto replied, half listening.

"Do you know where Sakura is? Did you see her?"

Naruto was listening now. "Why? What happened?"

"Eh, it's nothing."

Sasuke felt guilty. He felt that somehow, he was entirely at fault. If only he had stopped Sakura that night. She wouldn't have left, and they definitely wouldn't have lost Ino and Tenten. Sasuke wasn't the one to care much, but this, he did care about.

"Sasuke…"

"What?" Sasuke replied, an annoyed tone escaping from his lips.

"I don't know. It's just that this is the first time I've seen you conscious and it's the first time we're talking ever since…since after Tsunade told us about the mission."

"Really…"

"I just noticed." Naruto laughed a little.

"Good for you..."

"Well, excuse me if I--" Naruto felt himself become angry. Could Sasuke ever care about anything, even once?

"You want to save Hinata right? Well, than stop rambling and we'll get there sooner."

Naruto felt his anger diminish. He wouldn't let Sasuke get to him. He knew that Hinata was entirely what he should be focusing on right now. He had to save her.

-

"What was that?" Shikamaru heard screaming and people were running away from strong thuds in the direction of smoke. Those girls again?

"I should go there. Wonder if anyone's already arrived."

"Woah!" Shikamaru ducked his head into his hands as another explosion came from another side of the village. "What the--" he stopped. He looked to where one explosion occurred than looked to where the other one just had. "I should go to the one that just happened," Shikamaru reasoned. "Yeah, that's the best idea."

He looked to the flower that he still held in his hands. Somebody had given that flower to him while he was unconscious, and it happened to be one of the exact flowers in The Yamanaka Flower Shop. Maybe he was hoping for too much, but Shikamaru had decided that Ino was still alive, somehow. Maybe Sakura didn't have her story straight? Yeah, that was it.

He placed the flower gently into his pocket, and started his run toward the explosion. Things were becoming hectic and he was trying hard not to run into anybody since he was the only person running in this direction. While he ran, his mind wandered.

What if Ino expects her Sasuke to save her? Than what if she gets me instead? Will she be disappointed? Shikamaru stopped suddenly. Why do I care? Sasuke will save her then.

No, that wasn't good enough. Shikamaru wanted to be the one to save her. Shikamaru wanted to be the one she smiled at and called to when she saw him come to her rescue. He wanted…wait what didhe want?

Why am I getting so overworked? How troublesome…

Shikamaru was brought back to reality when he heard people screaming. He began to run again when he finally reasoned to himself. Ino was a troublesome girl. To get so overworked about her was troublesome. To be so confused about what he was feeling was troublesome. To cry about her was troublesome. He still cared about her though, but just as a teammate of course. As long as she was saved, by anyone, even Sasuke, he was happy with that. He would be happy even if she came back to boss him around twice as much, as long as she was okay.

He gained his focus when he got to the explosion site. He looked around. The smoke was too dark though, and he couldn't see anything. He squinted.

"Umph!" Shikamaru fell to the ground as he felt something hit him in the back.

-

Sasuke was being quiet. Well, he was almost always quiet, but this time, Naruto sensed that he was troubled. He seemed worried about Sakura. He wouldn't have asked about her otherwise.

"Are you worried about Sakura?"

"Be quiet. We need to hurry to the explosion site."

Naruto raised a brow. Sasuke had gotten ahead of them while they were running. Maybe if he could see the expression on Sasuke's face he would be able to tell more about what he was feeling. Than again, Sasuke was able to hide emotions well.

"You know, you're making me worry about her. I'm already worried enough about Hinata."

Sasuke said nothing.

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke knew Naruto was saying something, but took no note of what was actually being said. Sakura was acting weird. Now, he didn't know where she was.

"Sasuke-kun, if I were ever to disappear again, would you come after me?"

Why had Sakura said something like that?

Maybe, she's going to disappear on purpose…

Something else came to him.

Maybe she disappeared on her own in the first place. No…that can't be…

Sasuke clenched a fist.

"Hey, Sasuke." Naruto was starting to become impatient.

Sasuke stopped suddenly and Naruto stopped with him.

"Sas--"

"Shhh…" Sasuke held a finger to his lips. "Something's here."

"Something? Or someone?"

"SSSSHHHH! Does it matter?" Sasuke pulled Naruto behind the corner of a building and cautiously looked around.

"Sasuke?" Naruto tapped him on the shoulder.

"What now?" Sasuke turned around.

"Look over there. She's one of them…"

-

Shikamaru stood up suddenly and whirled around. He scanned the area; no one. Nobody that he could see at least. The smoke aided in that.

It's quiet. Who hit me?

Suddenly, Shikamaru felt something sharp to his neck. He stood still, unsure of what was behind him. He heard someone speak.

"Try anything, and I'll kill her."His eyes widened, and on instinct, he turned around and jumped back.

Sure enough, it was a girl in a black outfit. The same one that had attacked him the night he had tried to start the mission. No, wait, it was a different one. She held a certain pink-haired girl by the neck.

Shikamaru had enough of this. He wanted to know once and for all what was going on; who had taken Sakura in the first place, why were these girls attacking them, and who they were. Tenten was gone because of them. Ino was gone because of them. He had gotten hurt because of them. His teammates had gotten hurt because of them.

"What do you want with them? Why are you after those four girls!" Shikamaru felt something building up inside him. Anger? He wasn't so sure. Things were becoming hectic and even more confusing by the day. He just wanted to have things settle down. He hadn't stop to notice the clouds in, what it seemed, forever.

The female said nothing, and Shikamaru felt his anger increase.

"I just want to know!"

"Know what?" The female asked.

Shikamaru stopped. He had so many things that he wanted to know, but he said the first thing that came to his mind.

"I want to know if she's still alive. I want to know if she's okay." The female stopped at this.

"…She?"

"You probably don't know who she is, but her name is Ino. She's one of the girls that went missing from here…"

The female stopped and stood still. She seemed surprised and startled. He could've sworn she had loosened her grip on Sakura; enough for her to escape. That couldn't be; Sakura stayed right where she was, aside from looking back to the female in a questioning glance.

She finally answered. "Ino?"

Sakura spoke now. "I saw her die with my own eyes Shikamaru."

The female seemed to gain her composure now and answered too. "I made sure those two died, and now the other two will die too."

Shikamaru clenched his teeth. "That's a lie…" He couldn't accept it. He and Ino hadn't even had a decent conversation before she left.

"Believe what you want." The female shrugged and held up her kunai.

-

"We'd better be quiet or she'll hear us." Sasuke peered cautiously over the corner, seeing a female dressed in black after Naruto had pointed her out.

"Sasuke…" Naruto was looking in a direction. "There's smoke coming from over there too."

"Hm?" Sasuke looked towards the other location. "What's going on? How come no one else is here to help?"

"The weird thing is," Naruto began. "They all went out on missions. Well, I mean, most of them."

"Who's still here then?"

"Err…Hinata said…Chouji, Kiba, Lee, and Shino? Yeah, I think that's who…"

"Nope, they all left on an emergency mission today. There's no one here anymore." Sasuke and Naruto stopped and looked up. The female was standing on top of the building they were hiding behind, and she was holding Hinata.

"Hinata!" Naruto was going to jump onto the building, but felt his clothes stop him as Sasuke grabbed his shirt. "Don't be hasty and screw things up," he said in almost a whisper so the words were kept between them two only. Naruto clenched his teeth, but held himself back.

"You planned it all out!" Sasuke now yelled to the female. "What do you want with us?" So they somehow got everybody to go out on missions? But how?

She kept silent.

Naruto glared at the female who held Hinata. Her outfit held tight around her body, and she twirled a kunai between her fingers. "Tell us, why did you take Sakura, than the three other girls after that? Who took them if Orochimaru didn't?"

"I'm not going to reveal our plan." The female stared at the kunai in her hand as she played with it still, and Hinata stared blankly into the distance. The female laughed mockingly and jumped somewhere off the building where the two boys couldn't see her anymore.

Sasuke turned to Naruto. "Orochimaru…he didn't take them?"

Naruto looked around for the female who had disappeared, and kept his voice quiet. "That's what Shikamaru said." Sasuke mumbled something to himself. He then joined Naruto as he scanned for any traces of the enemy.

"Why?" Naruto peered around the corner, and sighed as he returned without seeing anything.

"Sakura…she…" Sasuke kneeled down while he began to creep towards another building.

Naruto followed after him, and stopped behind another building as Sasuke did. They both were still cautious as they spoke. "Did Sakura talk about escaping from Orochimaru when supposedly they weren't even taken by him?"

At this, his teammate stopped and turned to him. "You mean Hinata said things about Orochimaru too?"

"Yeah, doesn't make sense. I don't think Hinata would lie. I don't think Shikamaru would either. I don't know if Orochimaru did this or if he didn't. I keep hearing different things." He shrugged.

The two put their backs to the building and both looked around still for the female. Their minds began to wander on the recent events, and how confusing things had become as they stood now in silence.

Sasuke suddenly heard a whizzing noise and turned his head to see a shuriken heading directly for Naruto's shoulder.

"Ah! Naru-" Sasuke then heard a clink and when he opened his eyes he saw a kunai and a shuriken lying on the ground. One had hit the other and had thrown it of course. He turned to Naruto who was looking at his shoulder in surprise. There was a tear to the fabric of his sleeve where the shuriken had grazed past him.

Sasuke then saw Naruto looking into the street with a wide smile on his face. He too looked in that direction and he saw, Neji, who stood in the street, a few kunais in his hand, a grim expression on his face.

"Neji!" Naruto's smile gleamed as he saw him. "You're here! Hehe, just in time."

Neji gave him a nod, than looked towards the female as he shot her an icy glare. He was bitter about what they had made the team go through. He than looked to his cousin who was being held, and his expression softened dramatically as his eyebrows curved into a worried expression.

They stood in silence until they heard a third explosion in the same place where the second had occurred. "What's going on over there?" Naruto's eyes grew wide as he saw the enormous clouds of smoke. "Hey…Shikamaru is okay, right? Where is he?" He turned to Sasuke and shook his shoulder. "Is Shikamaru okay?"

"One of us should go check it out," Sasuke began, as he pushed Naruto's hand off his shoulder. "I'll go. I'm sure you and Neji can handle things here."

Naruto and Neji both gave him a nod, and Sasuke took off.

-

Shikamaru's head turned swiftly in all directions as he darted his eyes back and forth. She had thrown another flash bomb, and had disappeared again.

He was getting tired of this. The female seemed to be playing games with him. He guessed that maybe she didn't want to fight him though. She probably was just after Sakura and Hinata. Shikamaru wondered though. Where was everybody?

He looked around in the endless smoke. It was pointless though, for he wouldn't be able to find her until it died down. Shikamaru stayed cautious, while he let his thoughts flow in his head.

Maybe Ino really is…

He quickly dispelled the thought. Now wasn't the time. He stopped. Something was near. Shikamaru moved just in time to dodge a punch. He quickly spun around, and faced his opponent.

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke stopped, turned around, and stared. "Oh, so you are here."

They just looked at each other, awkwardly after that. Shikamaru and Sasuke were never what you called partners. Sure, they were assigned on the same mission, they went to the same academy when they were young, but they never talked either way.

Shikamaru began to look around. "One of those girls is here. We should move..."

Without a word, Sasuke began to run through the smoke and looked back to Shikamaru. "This is where I came from."

Shikamaru followed and soon they had found their way out of the smoke. They both stopped as they saw the female, standing on front of them, waiting.

"Sakura…" Sasuke stepped forward, but stopped himself from going any further.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Stay out of this…" The female held irritation in her voice.

She quickly turned away with Sakura and started speeding off. Sasuke hurried off after her, and Shikamaru followed after him. The female was quick, even with Sakura held in her arms. It didn't take long for Sasuke to figure out where she was going. They were heading back to where Sasuke had just come from, to where the other female was, to where Naruto and Neji were.

He turned his head back to where Shikamaru followed. "Hurry."

Shikamaru continued to follow without a word until he saw Sasuke come to an abrupt stop with the female. There were Neji and Naruto, battling with a female who had Hinata in her arm. She was amazing. She kept a firm grip on Hinata as she effortlessly dodged both of the talented ninja's attacks. On top of that, her moves flowed with grace.

The female who held Sakura whistled and the other one looked to her, than quickly jumped from her battle to where her teammate stood.

They stood back to back, and held a kunai to their captives' throats. Shikamaru and Sasuke stood on one side of them, and Neji and Naruto on the other.

"No more playing around," one female said. "Now, we complete our mission. We'll kill these two girls..."

Naruto had noticed. Maybe his teammates had also. "Where are the other two?"

One female laughed. "It's not much of a challenge when all four of us are here."

Naruto, Neji, and Sasuke scowled as they clenched their teeth, bodies shaking with building up anger. They were ready to fight. Shikamaru spoke. "Four? There are four?"

One female laughed a little to herself. "That's right. You were the weak one who fell unconscious."

Shikamaru glared at her, but tried to constrict his anger. He turned his head to the side and felt his eyebrow twitch.

The female laughed. "Let's…finish this."

One female quickly let go of Sakura, pushed her out of the way, than extended her fingers. She formed her arms into an x, and all four boys were trapped. A tight wire wrapped tightly around their bodies. The other wrapped wire around Sakura and Hinata. She ran a great deal away from the boys and her teammate, than pulled the two girls towards her. When they were next to her she jumped up back to her teammate, leaving Hinata and Sakura wrapped in wire quite a long way from where everyone else stood. She than pulled a bomb from her pouch.

The boys squirmed under the grasp of the wire as they realized what she was doing. "Noooo!" Naruto's yell echoed through the village, as he squirmed under the wires with frustration. "Stop! Hinata! Sakura!" He let out a few grunts as he knew he had done nothing to loosen himself.

They all tried desperately to loosen the hold of the wires. Naruto yelled as he wiggled, Neji fell as he lost his balance; Sasuke shut his eyes tight as he tried to extend his arms, and Shikamaru tried to get a hold of his kunai. Their eyebrows beaded with sweat, and blood made its way down as the wire pierced through their flesh.

The female threw the bomb in the air towards Sakura and Hinata, and the boys' muscles tightened at the sight. They were stuck. They couldn't loosen themselves and their bodies were already aching. "No! No! No! No!" Naruto repeated over and over as the bomb began to fall.

The females stood and watched. "10…9…8…"

The group could only watch now. "No, No, No, No, NOOOOOO!" Naruto tried to run, but couldn't, and he fell on his knees. The other three let out cries of the more building frustration as the wire just wouldn't budge. Sweat mixed with blood as it ran down their forehead and cheeks. Their bodies shook as the wire resisted every move.

Sakura's tears poured and fell to the dirt as she clenched her eyes shut. "We're so, so sorry! I wish we didn't have to..." She fell to her knees causing Hinata to fall with her. She couldn't speak anymore, as she tried to hold her tears back. Hinata spoke for her.

"We never meant to hurt you guys, but trust me, it was all for the best…" She cried too, as she turned to Sakura.

"I guess it worked." She said quietly.

"Yes…"

"3…2…1…"

The boys could only listen. Eyes open wide and bodies shaking with mixed emotions. What were they talking about?

The females watched the bomb fall. "…0…"

Well, I wanted a lot more to happen, but I was afraid that it would get too long.

So anyway, things aren't quite as they seem, trust me…

Thanks again for the reviews! I wanted to list all of the people who reviewed, but I can never get to it. Sorry...but I really do appreciate all of them. If you have any suggestions or anything, feel free too say.