Puck: Okay, since my scatterbrained creator is off playing Ninja somewhere, I'm doing the introduction this time.

SC: (appears in a poof of smoke)

Puck: GAH! Don't do that!

SC: (grins) (peace sign)

Puck: Oh… right… the 'silent but deadly' thing. Anyway, SpontaneousCombustion doesn't own Naruto, just her characters.

SC: (pulls out kunai)

Puck: And the plot line, but that's kind of obvious. (here, Puck receives boot to his kitten butt)

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Chapter 13

Roba opened an eye as he heard the voices in the other room disappear. Sitting up, he silently thanked himself for being paranoid enough to build up immunity to most types of poisons and sleeping drafts. He slipped off of the bed he was laying on silently, looking over his friends. Other than a small red pinprick on Shingetsu's arm, which meant she'd been drugged again, they all seemed fine. Now, if he could just find his pack…

'Aha!' He thought triumphantly as he spotted it on a shelf and pulled it down. 'I just hope that there's enough left in here…' He pulled out a vial of shimmering green liquid and pulled the stopper out. A bitter stench filled his nose but he ignored it and walked over to where his friends were laying. For a moment, he stared at the room they were in. It was arranged like a small child's room, with calm, cutesy colors and tenderly made up beds. The girls were all lying on the left side, and the boys were on the right, minus one because he had woken up.

He clearly remembered the attack the night before. Hari had shouted out a warning, mainly because he never really went to sleep, before he got hit by a dart of some sort. The others went down quickly, him included.

Of course, the unconsciousness on his part had all been a feint. Lying there, pretending to be asleep for god knows how long while that woman, 'Tsuki' he remembered, fussed over them like they were infants. He lifted up Kiseichu's head, for that's who was closest, and poured five drops of the liquid down his throat. The Hyuuga coughed and sputtered for a minute as it went down, but then his eyes snapped open.

"Roba? What-" Roba slammed a hand over his friend's mouth and held a finger.

"Be quiet." He hissed. Kiseichu nodded and Roba removed his hand. "I'll explain once we're out of here." He moved on to the next bed, which had Kakushin lying in it, and pried his mouth open. Under his breath, he counted the number of drops that went into the Uchiha's mouth. The second drop had barely hit Kakushin's tongue when Kiseichu let out yell of surprise. Roba turned, barely avoiding the dart that flew past his ear.

Tsuki was standing there, and she didn't look pleased. "Someone's been bad."

Roba glanced at Kiseichu, who was falling back into unconsciousness. 'Crap!' He thought, dropping the vial and making the signs for a substitution jutsu. He reappeared outside, and started running, but not without throwing a furtive glance over his shoulder. He had barely caught sight of a small, somewhat worn down looking house when he realized he'd put his foot down on… well, something not solid. Roba looked down to see that he had taken the first step right off the side of a cliff.

At that moment, Nara Roba's only thoughts were 'Oh' and 'Fuck.' His mind went blank as he saw the side of the cliff rising up to meet him and he felt the sheer terror of realizing that he was probably about to die. 'Come on, genius, thing of something!' Screamed whatever was left of his reasoning mind. He tried to rack his brain for an idea, a thought, hell, even a word, but nothing came, and the ground was getting closer by the nano-second.

Then a thought did come to mind, and it was a clear and resounding 'Ow.' For you see, luck happened to be on out genius prodigy's side today, and Roba had slammed into a tree branch. On his stomach.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't luck. 'At least I'm not falling now.' He mused to himself… before he heard the branch cracking beneath him. With a groan, he realized that his force of impact combined with his weight was too much for the branch to handle. 'Note to self: Lay off the cookies.' Roba thought moments before the branch broke completely, sending him straight into the cliff side. He felt the wind get knocked out of him as his back hit hard rock, and he couldn't catch a breath as he fell down another couple of stories.

Let's just say that he wasn't in the best of shape when he hit bottom. The path hadn't been straight; let's face it, the impact probably would have left him unconscious and severely injured. No, Nara Roba was still very much alive, and very much in pain. Cuts and scrapes marred his body from the various foliage and rocks he'd encountered on his way down, his left arm had popped out of its socket from trying to grab hold of another tree branch he passed by, his clothes were pretty much ruined from the various rips and bloodstains, and he was pretty sure he had a concussion.

All in all, not bad for having just walked off a cliff.

Groaning, he sat up and leant back against the rocks from which he'd just tumbled. Tearing his shirt off, or what was left of it anyway, he made a makeshift sling and put his left arm in it. No way was he popping it back in himself. He stood, and after the head rush went away, started going through the forest.

'This is just brilliant.' He thought to himself. 'I'm running blind here, and my friends are all trapped with a pair of psycho nutcases!' Roba winced as his head throbbed. 'This was so stupid. Maybe Kiseichu was right; we SHOULD have just let the ANBU deal with this. Gah, this is so troublesome.' He paused. 'And now I sound like my dad. Great.'

Roba continued stumbling through the forest, and running into the occasional tree or low branch, before he reached the beach. Collapsing on the cool sand, his entire body was burning. He'd been walking for hours, and the sun was about to rise. And he was so tired… Roba's eyes started to close… maybe he should just sleep…

His eyes snapped open. No. No sleeping, not now! He shoved himself up and looked out at the ocean. 'The boat!' He thought, struggling to his feet. "Where'd we put it, what the hell'd we do with it?!"

Roba grinned as he saw it. But his grin fell when he realized that he was barely going to be able to get it in the water, much less steer it, on his own. He groaned and sat down, leaning up against it. "Now what am I gonna do?" He looked up at the cloudy sky, his eyes scanning for any sort of shapes. "Son of Konohagakure's best strategist and I can't even come up with a plan to save my friends. Not to mention I dropped my only vial with any form of an antidote in it." He sighed and let his head fall against his chest. "Some prodigy I am."

Roba bit his lip. "If I could just make a signal fire without giving my position away to that freaky lady…" An idea struck him and he turned and looked at the boat he was leaning against. A grin broke out on his face.

--

"Naruto, go to sleep. We can steer the boat." Chouji told the sleepy blonde. Naruto shook his head, rubbing his eyes.

"No, really, I'm fi-" He let out a huge yawn.

Iruka smacked him lightly in the back of the head. "No, really, you aren't fine. Get some sleep. We can all read a map." Naruto gave Iruka a half-hearted glare that was lessened by his extreme need for sleep before he laid back and closed his eyes, using his pack as a pillow.

After a few minutes, Iruka looked over at him. "Is he asleep?"

"Out like a light." Kakashi chuckled. "This is what he gets for faking to be asleep all night." He tugged the blonde's hair lightly. There was a grunt and a badly aimed swat in return. All three conscious Shinobi laughed slightly. Chouji leant back against the edge of the boat, looking up into the sky.

Iruka looked over at him. "Taking up cloud gazing, Chouji?"

Akimichi looked at him. "Nah, just trying to figure out how Shikamaru can do it for hours on end." Chouji's gaze drifted over Iruka's shoulder and his eyes widened. Iruka noticed this and turned.

"Kakashi, do you see that?"

The silver haired Jonin nodded. "I see it, Iruka." He made several quick hand signs. "Iruka grab Naruto." He nodded and crawled over to the blonde, making sure he was safe and sound and staying on the floor of the boat. He gave Kakashi a thumbs up, and the older Shinobi nodded, and closed his visible eye.

Iruka tugged Chouji down next to him. "Hold on."

"What's he dooooiiiiinnnngggg?!" Chouji's question turned into a yell as the boat suddenly began to fly through the water (a/n: think 'speedboat' only it's powered by Kakashi's chakra.)

Three and a half hours later, the boat slowed as they reached the source of all the confusion. It was a boat, much bigger than the five-person one that the ANBU agents were using, piled high with branches, driftwood, basically anything that would burn, sending up a smoke signal so large, that it was probably visible all the way from The Island Hidden in the Mist. It was tethered in the area of the whirlpools surrounding Kage Ryu, being destroyed by the high speeds of the tide-induced pools.

"Holy shit…" Naruto whispered, for he was now awake.

Iruka turned to Kakashi. "Can you get us through those whirlpools?"

Kakashi nodded. "Hang on." The wooden boat sped over the whirlpool like it was nothing, stopping when it ran into soft sand.

"Kakashi-sensei! Iruka-sensei!" Roba burst through the tree line. Chouji jumped out of the boat first and ran over.

"Damn it, Roba! What happened to you?" He asked, looking him over.

Roba winced as Chouji touched his shoulder. "I… ow… fell off a cliff."

Chouji frowned. "Hold still." He grabbed Roba's arm and popped it back into its socket. Roba cursed under his breath, sliding the sling off his shoulder. "Now, tell me what happened."

The story poured out of Roba's mouth without interruption. "And then I lit the boat on fire and just waited." He finished.

Chouji ruffled his hair. "Smart idea."

Iruka turned toward him. "Roba, what did you say those names were?"

Roba paused. "Tsuki and Byakuya. Why? Do you know them?"

Kakashi nodded, his expression, or what could be seen of it, grave. "Abarai Byakuya and Madarame Tsuki. Rogue shinobi from The Island Hidden in the Mist."

"Why am I suddenly having a Zabuza flashback?" Naruto muttered.

"Well, not really rogue, Kakashi." Iruka corrected. "They disappeared on a mission several years back. The rest of their team washed up on the shore of the island, their bodies mutilated. It was assumed that either the other two were dead, or they'd gone rogue."

"Well, we obviously know which one they are now." Naruto muttered. "Because they've gone completely insane and have the kids!"

Kakashi pulled a vial out of one of the pockets of his vest. "Roba." He looked up and caught it as it was thrown at him. "Drink it."

Roba glanced down at it. "What is it?"

"Medicine from the hospital. We brought some just in case." Roba nodded and pulled the stopper out, drinking it. His eyes widened and he spat it out, dropping the glass and spilling the rest in the sand. It was too late though, and Roba fell onto the sand, unconscious. "Fast acting anesthesia." Kakashi explained. "It would've worked even if he'd stopped to smell it first. He picked up the vial, frowning slightly at the small amount of liquid left in it. "I was hoping that I would be able to save some. I'm afraid that the two vials I have won't be enough to stop Byakuya."

Iruka looked over at Chouji. "Get him somewhere safe. Put him behind the rocks, with the boat." Chouji nodded and lifted Roba up, carrying him over.

"So, how do we find this cliff?" Naruto asked. "The trees are too high to be able to see it."

Iruka sighed. "Too bad Neji or Sasuke isn't here. A strong kekkei genkai would be useful right now."

Chouji walked back over. "He should be okay. How long is he going to be out?"

"A couple hours, maybe." Kakashi said. "According to Shikamaru, Roba's got a high tolerance for poisons and things of the like."

"Then we'd better get moving." Iruka muttered, starting into the trees.

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SC: God, I'm in such a rut for this story. It's because I've been watching the crappy dubbed version on Cartoon Network and it's been getting me frustrated because it sucks so bad! I mean, I know that's the only version some people have seen, but I really much prefer than manga.

Read and review please!

Ja ne
SC