SC: So… um… hi?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. There. You made me say it. (goes off to emo in the corner)

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Chapter 16

Battle for life

'Damn those little brats!' Byakuya growled as he ran through the trees, Tsuki in his arms. 'Now I not only have to deal with the Leaf Village's ANBU, but I have to take care of THEM as well. And with Tsuki out of commission, this isn't going to be as easy as I had planned.' He stopped and set her down, giving her body a quick once over. He growled. "Damn this body. It's trying to reject my attempts, and I can't use its chakra yet."

Tsuki stirred lightly, moaning. "Buh-Byakuya..." He looked down, startled, only to see that she was still unconscious.

He stood, looking down at her. "Sorry, Tsuki. I'll come back for you, I promise." His image flickered and then disappeared as the leaves rustled in the direction he went in.

.X.X.X.

"We're lucky that Byakuya still doesn't know how to control the Hyuuga chakra." Kiseichu muttered as the Konoha shinobi followed the familiar chakra signal of the oldest Hyuuga through the jungle.

Hiun smirked. "Guess we should thank 'tou-san for putting us through all those tracking exercises, huh Kiseichu?" Her brother grunted in return, concentrating on following the trail that Hari- well, Hari's body- had left behind.

"It's getting thinner." He muttered. "Byakuya is figuring out how to control Hari's chakra."

"Look!" Menrui called, pointing at the forest floor. The shinobi leapt from the branches.

"It's Tsuki." Iruka muttered.

"Bastard." Shingetsu muttered, feeling an unwanted surge of pity for the girl.

Within seconds, the rogue shinobi was bound to a nearby tree. "You guys go on ahead." Chouji said. "I'll stay here and watch her."

"You sure Chouji?" Naruto asked. He nodded.

"I'll stay behind too." Iruka volunteered. "Just in case she wakes up." The other Jonin nodded and turned back to the trail that would hopefully lead them to Byakuya.

Kakashi looked behind the group to see that Shingetsu was trailing behind by a few trees. He slowed his leaps. "Something wrong?"

Shingetsu looked up at him, then back in front of her, her expression saddened. "More than I'd care to talk about." She replied quietly.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Hiun called before the silver-haired Jonin could reply. He caught up with the girl, who had stopped on a branch with the rest of the Konoha shinobi.

"What is it, Hiun?"

"The trail ends." Kiseichu said bluntly. "He either cut off the chakra flow, or he disappeared into thin air."

"He knows we're following him. He has to." Menrui whispered, scared.

"Hm, you think?" The shinobi all looked around as Hari's voice came from nowhere.

Naruto growled. "Any chance you two still have enough chakra for the Byakugan?" Hiun and Kiseichu shook their heads.

"Our Sharingan are out too." Kakushin muttered.

"So what do we do? Stand here and let him pick us-" Roba froze as a kunai flew past his face… from the wrong direction. The group turned to Shingetsu, whose hand was dipping back into the weapon pouch around her waist for another knife. "What are you doing?! Trying to take my ear off?"

The brunette rolled her eyes and reached around him, pushing the branches out of the way. A piece of cloth was pinned beneath the knife she'd thrown- cloth that appeared to be from Hari's shirt. "Consciously or not, Hari is influencing Byakuya- he's still in there. Byakuya's fighting like Hari." She tugged the weapon out of the tree bark. "We just have to figure out how to get him out."

"The blood." Menrui said quietly. "When Ha- er, Byakuya saw us, he looked down at that mark on his chest that was smeared. Maybe if we can get rid of it…"

"There has to be more than one. We'd have to find them all." Kakashi said. "But it just might work."

"Yeah, great. Now we've just got to find him." Kiseichu said sarcastically. "Easy."

"More so than we might think." Hiun murmured. "You guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

Kakashi began to get nervous when the younger shinobi began to grin. "The usual?" Kiseichu questioned.

"Ten second start- no out of bounds." Shingetsu said with a confirming nod. "Single target, six pursuing."

"Olly-olly-oxen-free!" Menrui yelled, throwing her head back. Kakashi and Naruto winced, but there was a rustle of leaves and a 'thump' as Byakuya fell out of a nearby tree, startled.

"Some ninja." Kakushin laughed, diving toward the ground and the shinobi. Byakuya moved out of the way in the nick of time, though his shirt didn't survive. It revealed the next three blood symbols on his right shoulders and back. He ran toward the trees, only to be knocked flat on his back by Hiun.

"Wrong way." She growled, leaning down and swiping a bit more of the blood on his chest off. The newly cleared skin glowed orange for a moment before fading. A log quickly appeared where Byakuya was. "Menrui, the one on his chest's yours!" She yelled, taking off into the trees after him.

"What… are they doing?" Naruto asked.

"They appear to be playing a game." Kakashi observed pointedly, watching as Shingetsu gave out orders to the other Genin before disappearing herself. "And I do believe they're winning."

--

Byakuya panted as he dodged another blow from Menrui. Somehow, he had lost enough focus to allow those… idiot children to clear the symbol from his chest, which returned the Uzumaki's chakra to its rightful owner and allowed her to use her most powerful technique- the Multiple Shadow Clone jutsu.

He leapt into the trees again to find himself being pursued by the Hyuuga twins- and was promptly tackled down by Roba, who wiped clean the mark on his shoulder before being thrown off. The area glowed a deep blue before disappearing like the first mark had.

"Hell yeah!" Kiseichu yelled, his Byakugan activating. "Try hiding now, ya' bastard!"

"Power rush much?" Hiun asked sarcastically, watching her brother summon a water jutsu an hit the fleeing Byakuya in the back, smearing and finally destroying the last two marks. The skin underneath glowed bright red and blue, respectively, before fading to pale peach again. Byakuya stumbled to his feet and disappeared again.

"Wait, that was all of them, wasn't it?" Kakushin asked, confused.

"No, there were only four marks." Roba corrected. "Which means we're still missing…" All eyes turned to the youngest Uchiha.

"Mine." Shingetsu muttered.

"But where is it?" Menrui questioned. "I mean, it can't be, like, on his legs or anything, can it?"

Shingetsu paused, then grinned up at her older brother. "No- I know exactly where it is." She got no further, though, as she suddenly found a kunai pressed to her throat.

"And it's something that none of you will ever find out." Byakuya hissed. "You, my dear, have been a thorn in my side for too long- it's all too obvious that you are the leader of this little group, and I am going to fix that."

"No- you won't." Kakushin growled, his black eyes turning red. "Let go of my little sister."

"One more step and you won't have to worry about it anymore." He sneered, pressing the knife closer to Shingetsu's skin. Blood trickled down her throat. Kakushin paused.

Shingetsu, though, smirked. "You're an idiot." She chuckled to Byakuya.

"I've had enough of your mouth." He cried, slashing her throat… or he would've, if his arm was still in his control. "What…?!"

"She's right- you are an idiot." Roba smirked, lowering his arms to his sides. Byakuya's followed. Shingetsu stepped away from him, touching her throat.

"You're going to die when you get back into your own body." She told him cooly, reaching up and pulling off Hari's hitai-ate, consequently revealing the last mark. "Goodbye Byakuya." She smirked, rubbing it off with her thumb.

A howl ripped from Hari's throat as a ball of deep grey, nearly black chakra rose out of his body, and he went limp (well, as limp as one could get in Roba's clutches anyway). His head rose a moment later, and he looked around, confused. "What… where are we?"

"Think its really him?" Hiun questioned.

Hari looked offended. "Of course its really me! Who else would I be?"

Shingetsu tapped her chin. "I dunno… tell us something only Hari would know."

"Seriously, Shin?" She cocked an eyebrow. He sighed. "Fine, fine." After a pause, he grinned. "When we were little, mom used to call Kiseichu…"

"It's him!" Kiseichu blurted, interrupting whatever Hari was going to say. "You swore never to tell." He growled as Roba released his brother. Hari wasn't free for long, though, as Shingetsu immediately hugged him.

"So, I guess something happened, huh?" He asked softly.

Shingetsu laughed. "You have no idea." All of them looked up as the black ball of chakra, which had been hovering over their heads, suddenly flew back toward the hut with a sound like a scream.

"Follow it!" Shingetsu yelled, all seven disappearing into the brush.

--

Byakuya was not a happy camper when he awoke again, in his own body. "Damn it!" He cursed, overturning the nearby table topped with weapons. "How could I let myself be beaten by children?!"

"Because you suck?" He whipped around to see the aforementioned 'children' standing in the stairway. Kakushin was the one who had spoken.

He growled at them, but turned into a smirk as he straightened up. "Oh no. I've been cornered. Whatever shall I do?"

"You can't escape." Shingetsu said. "Not without leaving Tsuki behind."

Byakuya shrugged. "Who needs her? I already know the formula for her poisons- I can make them myself now. She's worthless to me."

"Glad to know." Shingetsu said, throwing a kunai at him. Byakuya moved slightly, the weapon barely scratching his cheek.

"How on earth could I be beaten by such amateurs?" He scoffed, leaning down and wrapping his fingers around the handle of a katana. He stood again, taking a step forward, then froze. "What-?" His eyes flickered to Roba, who laughed.

"Don't look at me." He smirked.

'Shingetsu' glared at Byakuya. "Traitor." With a puff of smoke, Tsuki took the young Genin's place. Byakuya's eyes widened, but he said nothing as his mouth could no longer move. "By the way, since you know my poisons so well, you should know what this one is." She walked down the stairs toward him. "Complete paralization within seconds of entering the bloodstream. One of my specialties."

"You remember our deal, Tsuki." Kakashi- suddenly appearing on the staircase- said quietly.

She nodded. "Of course. I will create the antidote for your ANBU agents and admit to the charges, as well as bear witness against Byakuya."

Kakashi nodded. "Iruka, Naruto." The two shinobi appeared at his side. "Why don't you help Byakuya to the boat?" The two of them descended the staircase, smirking. Chouji pried the katana from Byakuya's hand, grabbing the arm opposite of Naruto.

"You know that old saying. Hell hath no fury." Naruto chuckled as they dragged the immobile rogue up the stairs.

It didn't take long for everyone to reach the beach. While Kakashi was working on using a water jutsu to bring the boat back to shore, Shingetsu stood off to the side of the group. Menrui glanced over at her rather distant friend. "Shin? What's wrong? We're going home."

Shingetsu sighed. "Yeah. Home." She glanced over at Kakashi. "Great."

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SC: Aaaand… that's that. The next chapter should be up pretty quickly, since I know I've had THAT scene planned out in my head since I pretty much started this story. Sorry for the long wait- I've been having a bit of a streak of bad luck with my writing. Nothing's been coming out like I wanted, and I haven't been posting… but I'm working on it. Anyway, reviews are really appreciated.

Ja ne
SC