Quick Valentine's Day update!

It's been so much easier to write these last couple of chapters because they're just fun to write and I can see everything that happens and will happen with ease, I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine

Rated M for Language

Chapter 18: The Reinforcements

Masa blinked several times trying to comprehend the words the girl had spoken and suddenly it all clicked in the old man's head.

"Ohhh~ haha you young kids and your slang, I'm an old man dear, you shouldn't use those kind of phrases with me but I understand, I'll make you a delicious juicy steak, rare of course, with all the blood and juice attached, now if you'll excuse me, I'll head to the kitchen and get started on that, you head upstairs and rest".

Sunnora was once again alone.

'What the hell just happened?'

Ignoring the insisting old man that kept addressing her with such horrible and truly unacceptable terms she tried to ignore the pain in her head and started looking for that annoying silver haired nuisance. Even though she was tired she knew compensation would soon be awarded to her for all her hard work, getting her hands on that man and torturing would bring a feeling of elation that would make these horrible experiences in the human realm all disappear from her mind. She was sure that luck was far out of her reach when she couldn't find Hidan anywhere. It was still pitch dark outside and it didn't help at all that her demon energy was still almost non-existent.

'There is no way I can use my tracker chant to get my katana back with this miniscule amount of energy that I have…this is why I refuse to use demon rituals, they are so troublesome, now I can't get my katana back, or use any other simple rituals and to make things worse, my body isn't healing at all, it is almost as if I'm some human, where I actually have to rest and heal with time…it's so pathetic, I'm so weak I want to just crawl in a hole and die' the idea of being in a hole and dying brought a genuine smile to Sunnora's face as she recalled how she first saw Hidan when she dug him up, 'maybe that's what he was doing in that hole…well if I was him, I'd probably do the same, he's so-'

A startling noise pulled her away from her thoughts when she was almost knocked over as a silver haired man threw the front door open causing her to jump back, hitting her back against the wall. Wincing for a second as she made the contact, she looked up and saw a smirking Hidan.

"There you are dipshit, I was looking all over for you, when I didn't see you in your room I thought you had left me again".

Just his voice was enough to anger the goddess, and this little nickname he had for her was enough to push her over the edge.

"Shut the fuck up you stupid human!", she ran towards him and was about to go for his throat when he caught her wrist in his hand with little effort.

'Shit…my speed…my strength, they're-'

"What are you trying to do? This isn't the time for your little games now, we were supposed to leave a while back…geez you're like a child, how old are you again?"

Gritting her teeth she looked up at him and narrowed her eyes, trying to show him just how angry she was,

'Why is this happening now? Why is it that when I finally have him in front of me again I don't have the strength to kill him? I'm at the same level as all the weak humans in this realm, I'm truly pathetic', Sunnora dropped her head in shame and let her arm fall loosely to her side as Hidan had let his grip go.

"You've gone completely crazy, are you seriously still mad over what happened last night? I told you what happened already, geez dipshit if you keep this up I might start thinking you're turning into me".

Sunnora quirked a brow at this and looked up at the man in front of her. She figured she couldn't use her speed or strength to kill him off now but if she stuck close to this man and feigned being whatever he thought she was she could not only get information out of him but maybe find a way to get out of this realm and return home, her father's priest did say she could go home if she stuck close to this man…impossible as the idea seemed it was her only way out and it seems she didn't have an option.

'Plus, maybe I can kill him when I catch him off-guard, in my weakened state that's my only choice'

She tried to hide the unpleasant look on her face and spoke through her gritted teeth. "and what would that be?…H-Hidan"

Sunnora could clearly see the surprise on his face as she spoke to him.

"Well a real killer of course", he grinned and stared at the girl for a couple of seconds.

A couple seconds too long in Sunnora's opinion for she couldn't hide the frown that was plastered on her face and looked at him square in the eye.

"WHAT!" she shouted at the man and crossed her arms at the irritation she felt, she hated being scrutinized and she knew that that was what Hidan was doing, observing her like some experiment.

"No, nothing, shit…you're moody today, something is definitely off about you, are you still sick?" he placed one of his hands on her forehead which made the goddess freeze in place. Her eye twitched as he removed his hand and placed it over his own forehead and then back again onto hers.

"Nope, you feel fine, but maybe you're just tired, ugh even as irritating as the idea seems to me I guess you could go back upstairs and rest, I can postpone the walk for a few hours, well until sunrise, then we'll really have to leave, I just don't want you all grouchy throughout the trip".

Sunnora slapped his hand away from her face and pushed him back further away with a quick shove to his chest.

"I'm fine! But touch me again and you'll regret it…painfully so", she walked slowly towards him like a predator and grabbed the collar to his cloak bringing their faces closer together, "do you understand, Hidan", her voice was barely audible but her message was conveyed through her tone and eyes that screamed how she felt.

Hidan nodded and stood upright as she pulled away from him, turning her back towards him. He scratched the back of his head and tried wondering what had gotten her so mad, she was fine last night.

'I don't understand girls'…

Ino ran past Yamato who was still holding his jutsu in place, her shoes were damp with the black substance as she made her way through the area. Her blue eyes widened in shock as she clearly saw the outline of seven individuals. They were all badly bruised, some more than others.

"Everyone! What happened here!?" she yelled as she made her way over to them. Kakashi was breathing heavily and she could see that he had pulled down the mask covering his left eye, the strange red pattern was barely ever seen and she wondered about it for a second but her concern intensified when she could see blood gathering around his lower eyelid. Sakura and Sai stepped away from their sensei and watched as he collapsed to his knees, she could tell they were all weakened, especially Kakashi. Sakura leaned in close to her sensei and Ino saw the familiar green glow around her friend's palms emit healing chakra, she used her ability to heal Kakashi of the many cuts he had all over his body. He seemed unconscious and lay in disarray barely managing to keep his one good eye open. Sai crouched next to Sakura and just observed with admiration at the man who had saved their lives.

She turned around and saw Gai and Lee both on the ground panting like dogs, they still had the small red glow that came with using the eight gates technique. Turning slightly to the side she saw Tenten close to Neji who had just a second ago stopped rotating, she knew the technique quite well it was the Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven, she had seen Hinata in the training grounds often, practicing it with diligence. He was also panting, his chakra almost completely spent and her eyes directed downward by Neji's feet as she saw an unconscious team mate on the ground.

She ran over to the group and held Shikamaru's head, inspecting him closely, he was definitely unconscious. "Neji, Tenten, what happened here? Why is Shikamaru here?" she was so confused and could see the confusion adorn the face of Choji and Yamato as they ran up to the group. She also saw a very energy drained Naruto run over to Kakashi's side. Focusing back on their side she looked up with desperation at the brunettes that stood by her side. Yamato and Choji both looked at them as well, awaiting any answer.

Neji was still catching his breath and looked seconds away from collapsing so Tenten spoke up. "We are not entirely sure what happened either, this all happened not too long ago, we were all doing our mission tracking down an individual who attacked some children from the Academy not too far from the village late last night. As we were doing investigative work around the area where the incident took place we found something that we didn't recognize so then Kakashi summoned Pakkun who was able to track down the person from that something that was left behind, as we were rushing to catch her, I overheard Pakkun tell Kakashi that there was a familiar scent in close proximity to the criminal, I'm assuming that was Shikamaru because when we arrived he was getting strangled, Neji managed to catch her and stopped all chakra circulation but I really don't know what happened next, she stood up like nothing had happened and started saying some weird thing, I'm not too sure on that…anyways, that's when this strange black fog appeared and she managed to escape because of it. A bit after she left, it started raining, only it wasn't water, it was black and really sharp..kind of like needles falling from the sky. The speed and the number alone made it almost impossible to escape but we managed", she looked up and Neji and smiled kindly, "thank you Neji".

Neji nodded and looked ahead in the direction where she had run off to. "Another thing is certain, she is very dangerous and we cannot let her escape".

Yamato and Choji nodded in agreement, Ino watched mesmerized at the information, "but wait!" she looked from Neji to Tenten and then back again, "so what was Shikamaru doing here? Our mission isn't even anywhere close to here; we had to rush out of our way to come this way so what happened?"

Tenten looked from Ino to Shikamaru and sighed, "Sorry Ino but I don't know, we will have to wait until he wakes up to ask him, only he can tell us".

Ino nodded; quite perplexed by the amount of information she had just received. She watched Kakashi being held up by Sai and Naruto as they made their way over joining them. "Kakashi-senpai, are you okay!?"

Kakashi looked up and smiled at his younger fellow, "Ah Yamato, so you were the one that saved us huh? I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't arrived when you did".

Yamato looked over at Choji and Ino and smiled, "yeah well it wasn't just me, it was all thanks to Choji and Ino's help, you guys really did a great job".

Ino and Choji smiled at the praise and looked back at Kakashi, quite worried about the state he was in.

Kakashi let out a small chuckle and looked at all their worried faces, "Ah don't worry everyone, I'm fine, it's just tiring using that technique, seems I haven't gotten the use of it quite yet so it wears me out quite rapidly".

Yamato nodded when he realized he was talking about his mangekyou sharingan.

Naruto grabbed hold of his side and Sai's side of Kakashi and hugged him in a bear hug. "I'm so happy you're okay Kakashi-sensei! You protected Sakura-chan!" everyone's eyes widened as they saw Kakashi squirm in pain at the tight embrace of his former student.

"Naruto! You idiot let Kakashi-sensei go!" she punched Naruto in the gut and carried Kakashi's weight on her side with ease, "Geez Naruto always causing problems".

Naruto pouted and everyone gave him an exasperated sigh in return.

Sakura glanced over everyone to see if anyone was seriously injured and felt her worry lighten when she saw everyone looked fine, they were all bloody and extremely tired but nothing life threatening.

"So Tenten told us she got away", Yamato voiced.

"Yeah, I tried going after her but the fog was too thick I couldn't see a thing", Naruto looked over to the area where she had disappeared to.

Yamato also looked ahead in that direction and sighed, 'No wonder Tsunade-sama was so concerned, she really is dangerous'.

After Ino and Sakura treated everyone of their cuts, all the girls gathered around Shikamaru as the rest of the team talked over strategy and planned what they would do next.

Tenten turned her head facing both girls and then back at Shikamaru, "so how is he?"

Ino frowned quite concerned as she stared at the boy and then looked up at the brunette, "I mean, he's completely fine, his vitals and everything else is normal, his chakra levels are low though, meaning he was probably fighting her before you guys found him, it would also explain the nasty mark around his neck, you did say he was being strangled right?"

Tenten started laughing quietly which got the confused stares from both of her fellow kunoichi.

"Oh I'm sorry, it just seems kind of ironic that Shikamaru, the king of strangling jutsus would be almost killed by strangulation", the girl kept giggling but stopped when the disapproving glances came her way.

"I'm sorry", Tenten bowed her head in shame.

"Anyways, let's move him somewhere else then join the rest in planning how we're going to catch this criminal, we have to make her pay for what she did".

The girls moved Shikamaru over where Yamato had built a small cabin for the group to plan. It was still dark out but the sun would be rising soon and they knew it would be much easier to move around in daylight.

"So does everyone know what they're going to do?" Kakashi asked the group of teenagers as they faced Kakashi, Gai and Yamato.

"Yes Kakashi-sensei" the group said in unison.

Everyone was still pretty scratched up but all the bleeding had stopped and chakra levels were pretty stable.

"Okay, Ino and Choji, you stay behind with Yamato and wait until Shikamaru wakes up, then meet with us"

The two nodded their heads and watched the group head out as the sun rose covering the forest with light.

okay, well you all know what's coming up next! Next update will be up very soon ^-^

Review please! It feeds my interest of writing :D