A/N: Wow, I've been ridiculously busy. I'm very sorry. Thanks for hanging on. I've had some writers block lately as well along with school. I've had a lot of music concerts I've had to go to as well. :D I have the next chapter partly written, so I hope to update soon.

Chapter Five

Mission One Fails

It was a trap. He should have known, but he didn't listen to his voice of reason. No, instead he listened to Sasuke Uchiha by venturing even more into the hideout. They thought it would be a better idea to see what else lay beyond the leafed walling and the stone walls; only to run into an invisible barrier. Sasuke easily broke it with his chidori. The barrier broke too easily as it sent a shock wave through the tunnel and that's when they knew they made the worst call they ever made.

Now he was separated from Sasuke and he was now hiding behind a tree holding his injured arm, from being slashed by a kunai that was full of lightening chakra. The cloaked men where silently searching for both men who were easily separated from each other. Just exactly like they planned.

Shikamaru peeled off his gloves and tossing them into a tree, to look as if they got snagged as he was running away. He needed a plan and a quick one. He knew Sasuke was going to be fine, in fact, he was ten times stronger than Shikamaru, so he had no doubt, but he needed to find his way back to the Sharingan user as soon as possible.

There was a snap as a black shuriken flew towards Shikamaru. He flew backwards off the tree was using to lean against. He took out his own shuriken to deflect another being followed by five more. He hadn't packed his chakra blades so his shadow manipulating wasn't going to work too well with capturing his foes. He sprinted to an underbrush as he evaded more kunai's and shuriken's flew his direction. He leaned behind a tree kneeling down, slapping his fingers together into his traditional thinking pose.

The enemy won't let you think that long, his father's words rang through Shikamaru's head. He snorted. But these guys are slow when it comes to attacking, so it won't matter. He began to analyze a way to get his enemies out into the open.

Opening his eyes, Shikamaru drew out a kunai, a paper bomb attached to it and he threw it right into the air. A loud boom signaled his way of letting Sasuke where he was and to distract the enemies as he raced out into the opened throwing shuriken after shuriken into the air at random; each being deflected from one area to the next. He summed it up to only being three. Two had thrown their own with more force than needed, telling Shikamaru that they were more advanced in taijutsu. The third seemed less forced making Shikamaru suspecting this person knew how to use genjutsu the best.

He released his jutsu, letting his shadows quickly weave themselves towards his destination. He caught all three much too easily, which made him feel suspicious. Risky. His brain kept screaming that into his mind as three cloaks flew down towards him as his shadows dragged them out into the open. Each of them he could clearly see, were wearing white masks. The first person closest to his right was large and tall; seeming like his blows would hurt. He wore a mask that looked like a lion face. The one to his left was small and lean, which meant his attacks were far ranged yet dangerous; with a mask shaped as a bear. The one in the middle concerned Shikamaru the most. He was tall and he wore his hood slightly off, showing his mask covering half his upper face, shaped like a bird like mask, with only his lower face showing. His long hair creeping out from behind his neck.

"Who are you?" Shikamaru asked.

The tall man snorted softly. "I'm surprised you haven't figured that out. I thought I heard the Nara clan was the most intelligent clan among all of the ninja world."

Shikamaru felt his shadow struggle to hold this man. His chakra didn't seem right. "Heh, well I wanted to find out who you were in person not by guessing."

The taller man shifted slightly from Shikamaru's shadow grasp. "We call ourselves - KARA."

In a speed of lightning, Shikamaru felt his grasp on the man slip away as the man came full front in his face with his hand towards him. His body wanted to move out of the way, but he found himself unable to. Looking down was chakra binding down his feet as a bright light went right to his face.