Suprise! Your gift is two chapters in one night. I know not a great gift but still. I'm gonna shut up so you can read this. Enjoy! (Also insert usual disclaimer)

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Chapter 12

"Shikamaru?" she whispered. Before he could move Rayne quickly pulled out a kunai, threw it at the leaf ninja and bolted. The kunai flew at the unprepared ninja and he moved just in time. The blade lighly sliced the side of his face bringing him back to focus. He took off running after Rayne.

Rayne quickly jumped up onto the nearest roof, not looking behind her. She vaulted over a wall and lept onto another roof.

"What is he doing here!"

"How would I know Rayne? Just run!"

She jumped down from one rooftop to another, rolling as she hit the ground, then quickly jumped up and continued running. She heard Shikamaru call her name from behind her, ordering her to stop. She ignored him and kept running, sliding under or jumping over anything that got in her way. She kept running until she hit the edge of the roof she was on. The jump to the other side was too far and she cursed herself for not noticing earlier. She glanced behind her. Shikamaru was catching up fast. She took one look over the edge the backed up a little. The ground wasn't too far below, so she would at least try to jump. She took a running start and went to jump. Right before she acctually jumped she felt wire wrap arround her legs, sending her off the roof and crashing onto the ground. She cursed as she hit the ground and smashed into some crates and trash bins. She landed hard on her side, bruising her shoulder and back. The crate had broken, scraping up her knees and forearms as she struggled to free herself. Shikamaru jumped down in front of her as she freed herself from the wire. Rayne qucikly got up and was about to turn to run when she froze. She tried to move but was unable to. She glanced down to a shadow connecting hers to the leaf-shinobi's. She swore again as she realized she had been caught in Shikamaru's shadow possession. Shikamaru stood up straight and Rayne felt her own body move without her control as she mimicked him.

"Rayne?"

"Shikamaru"

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Just answer the question Rayne" he sighed. "I'm here on a mission and don't have time to be messing around."

"I came here a little while after I escaped. I'm staying here with... well, some friends of mine." she answered truthfully. There was no use lying to him.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow but was silent for a moment. Both ninjas stood there watching each other for a few moments. Rayne could only stand there as blood dripped down her legs and hands. A few drops fell and splashed to the ground.

"So," she asked harshly,"are you going to turn me in?"

Shikamaru's hard gaze softened and he sighed. "How troublesome" he mumbled under his breath. Rayne smirked a little bit. He had always felt a little sorry for the girl and had, despite all the trouble she has caused for him, grown to like her quite a bit. "Listen Rayne, it wasn't my mission to come look for you. I have business with the Kazekage. I'll let you go just this once. Once, Rayne. I like you but not enough that I would risk getting in huge trouble for helping you. I hope you understand."

Rayne couldn't move to nodd her head. "Yeah, I get it. Thanks." She felt relieved but the fact that she had gotten caught so easily worried her. Maybe her time living in the Sand Village had made her weak. Maybe it was time to move on. Shikamaru realeased his jutsu and Rayne fell to her knees, causing more damage to them, which she didn't seem to notice. She sat down and leaned against the wall of the alley.

Shikamaru placed a cigarett in his mouth and lit it with his silver lighter. He took a deep drag from it. "I'm really sorry Rayne."

"I know, its fine. I completely understand. It's your job and you have to do it. For the sake of the village, blah blah, Will of Fire. All the bull shit." She smiled a little as the familiar scent of cigarettes hit her.

"Yeah something like that." smiled Shikamaru. He turned to leave then suddenly stopped. "Oh and Rayne, Royce is still looking for you."

She quickly looked up at him, suprised. "That idiot. I thought they told him I was dead?"

"We did. He refuses to believe it." he said, sticking his hands back in his pockets.

Rayne laughed. "What an idiot. He's going to get in trouble trying to find me. I guess I would do the same if it was the other way around." She let out a deep sigh. "Did you know, the two of you smoke the same cigarretts? I can tell by the smell."

"I never noticed." He turned around and began to walk away. "Well, I hope I don't see you around." he said, then left.

Rayne sat there for a while breathing in the lingering smell of the cigarrette. She winced as she stretched out her legs, noticing the blood that was now smeared on her legs. A few splinters stuck into her leg and she quickly picked them out. Cursing, Rayne dug through her bag looking for bandages. She quickly wrapped her bleeding knees before getting up. With a small limp that was disapearing quickly, she headed out of the alley way.

"Are you going to be alright?" questioned Madarou.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" she replied as she licked a trail of blood off her forearm. She had ran out of bandages so she did the same to her other arm before heading back up to the roofs. Remembering she was suppose to be meeting her team and was now very late, she swore and took off running again.

"Damn it! Where the hell is she?"

"Akio, shut up. She'll be here in a few minutes." growled Kankuro.

The three shinobi on her team were all waiting by the village gate for Rayne. She had told Kankuro that she would need five minutes. He wondered how five minutes could turn into 20. He was about to say something else about Rayne being late when the Kunoichi came leaping down off a nearby roof and panted out an apology. He was rather concerned when he saw the bandages around her knees and the fresh blood on her arm. Rayne seemed to notice the blood on her arm as well and quickly licked it off.

"What the hell happened Rayne?" asked Akio, very worried.

She looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. "What do you mean kid?" Over the last few months Akio had started to act differently around her. Although he still argued with Rayne, it had become more of teasing. He no longer hated her like he had once did. He had even become a little protective of her and it was making her feel a little uncomfortable. He had been the one who hated girls because of the way they acted and now he was treating her like one of the helpless females he hated. She blamed it on the fact that she had saved his life, maybe he was just trying to return the favor.

"What do I mean? Look at you. You're a mess. It looks like you got into a fight."

"Oh this" she laughed. The others stared at her for an answer for a few seconds but she showed no signs of answering.

"Well? What happened" Said Akio.

"Well you see, I was running late this morning. So I'm hurrying accross the rooftops trying to get here when I slipped and fell right of the roof. I got a little scraped up when I fell. Then I lost track of where I was and was so late because I was momentarily lost. I still have a hard time finding my way around this damn city. It's too big."

"Bullshit. Like you would just slip off a roof. Your much too coordinated to do that." Rayne looked at him weird, suprised by the sudden compliment. Akio turned red in the face and turned away after mumbling something even Rayne wasn't able to catch. She looked up at Kankuro. "So, are we going to get going or what?"

"Yeah, let's go" he said motioning for the others to move. Akio and Hitoshi walked on ahead and started talking about something that happened to some of the other sand genin the day before. Rayne began to follow behind them but Kankuro reached out and grabbed her shoulder. She winced and became a little pissed as his hand squeezed her injured shoulder but she didn't let him see that.

"Hold on a second Rayne" He waited a few moments before Akio and Hitoshi were out of earshot then he began walking after them with Rayne at his side. "Mind telling me what happened?"

"Didn't you hear me telling Akio? I fell of a roof on my way here." she replied trying to sound relaxed.

He didn't believe that for a second. Akio was right, Rayne was a bit to graceful to just slip and fall off of a roof. Something must have happened for her to have gotten those injuries. "Yeah but what really happened?" he asked

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Listen, it was nothing. I just ran into an old...acquaintance of mine. I took care of it and thats all there is to it. I really did fall off a roof though. That bastard tripped me" she huffed, crossing her arms.

"What the hell do you mean you 'took care of it'? Rayne please don't tell me you killed someone" he said almost sounding angry and he was, one condition to her staying here was to obey the rules and not cause problems. If she had killed this man...

"No he's fine" She answered quickly with a wave of her hand. "He looks much better than me, I only put a scratch on his face. There was no real fighting, just talking. Like I said don't worry about it."

Kankuro gave her an unsure glance. "You sure?"

The Kunoichi nodded. "Yes, everything is fine. Now lets focus on the mission. Weren't you the one who said you wanted to get home as soon as possible?"

"I'll take another drink" called Rayne to the bartender.

He pudgy man walked over to her with a bottle. "Aren't you a little too young to be drinking miss?" he asked suspicously, withholding the drink.

Rayne glarred at him. "That's irrelevant."

"Were not suppose to serve alcohol to anyone underage." said the man.

"That didn't stop you before." She couldn't help but wrinkle her sensitive nose at how much the man reaked of sweat and bad cigarrets.

"Thats true but this is your second bottle of sake. I don't want you causing any trouble miss so-"

"Oh just shut the hell up and give me the damn drink. I'm paying double the price to get that." she growled. A few of the other people seated at the bar shot her strange looks but she ignored them. It was getting late now but she didn't care. Her and her team had gotten back from their mission about two hours ago. It had been another success, as expected. She had gone to the Kazekage's tower to pick up her reward money and now planned to spend all of it on drinks. It wasn't like she needed it for anything else. Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari woldn't let her pay for anything she really needed anyways. She poured a glass, downed it and set the glass back down on the counter. She really should be getting home but she didn't want to chance running into Shikamaru at the house. She was about to pay for her drinks and leave when she noticed Akio and Hitoshi walk in. They glanced around the room and she tried to hide, but with her red hair she was easily spotted. The two boys walk over to where she was and sat down to the side of her.

"Hey Rayne, what are you doing here" asks Akio as he eyes the empty bottle in front of her and the whole bottle in her hand.

"Oh nothing much, just trying to avoid going home. I thought I'd come here and spend a little bit of that money we earned today." she smirked, sloshing the sake around in its bottle.

"Sounds... fun" said Akio. Rayne wasn't looking too good but he didn't want to be the one to try to stop her from drinking. He had just got there and could tell she was a little off. The boys placed their orders for food and the three of them sat at the bar conversing. Rayne was being rather quiet and most of the time she just sat and listened as the two boys talked. In the time Akio and Hitoshi had taken to eat their food, Rayne had managed to sneak in a few more drinks. She figured she deserved them. She had a lot on her mind right now and needed something to help her relax or she would end up going crazy. What had happened with Shikamaru today had really get her thinking. She now found her questioning what she was even doing in the sand village. Sure it offered her a great place to hid but how long did she plan on staying there? She had things to do and didn't want to spend the rest of her life hiding out here. She slammed her glass down after another drink and dropped her head onto the counter. Akio and Hitoshi both looked at her and Akio even laughed.

"You alright Rayne? I'm thinking you had a little too much to drink" he grinned, taking a big risk. The bar tender sent a cautious look over to their spot at the counter. He didn't want them causing any trouble in his bar.

"Im thinking you should shut the hell up" she growled. Akio just laughed again. She didn't seem too angry.

"We should probably get going guys" he said as he hoped off his stool. "Our parents are going to start to worry if we are out too late."

"I don't have parents".

"Oh geeze Rayne, I didn't know. I'm sorry. Are you all by yourself then?" he said feeling embaressed. Rayne never talked about her family so how was he supposed to know?

She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm staying with a few friends of mine."

She sighed in annoyance as he grabbed her arm and pulled at her. "Let's go Rayne"

The kunoichi slammed her money down on the counter of the bar and followed the boys out of the bar swaying just slightly. The bartender let out a sigh and quickly retrieved the money while others in the bar watched them leave before returning to their drinks. They stepped out of the bar and Rayne's skin broke out in goosebumps. She crossed her arms trying to protect herself from the cool night temperatures.

"We'll walk you home Rayne." offered Akio

"No, its better if I walk you guys home. I need to walk for a bit. If I come home drunk I'll be in trouble."

"But its late and it's-"

"If you try to tell me it's not safe because I am a girl I will shove your foot up your ass. You know I'll be fine, so lets get walking to your house."

"Of course I wasn't going to say that. I was just going to say... it's going to take a lot of walking for you to get better. Your completely drunk right now."

Rayne swung at him and punched him in the upper arm hard enough to probably bruise it. He yelped and rubbed his arm with a grin on his face. "You hit like a girl." She swung again but he just jumped out of the way laughing. Lucky for him she was rather tipsy and her aim wasn't the best. Him and Hitoshi both stood close to her as they began to head off towards his house incase she slipped, which judging by the way she was swaying, was very possible.

Rayne yawned. She was getting tired now and her eyes were feeling heavy, which confused her. She was fine a moment ago. She followed after Akio and Hitoshi, not paying attention to where she was going. They were getting farther and farther into parts of the city she as unfamiliar with and she was hopelessly loss. She would have been better off if she had been paying attention but she was feeling a little dizzy and it felt better to just keep her head down. It didn't matter if she would have to spend hours wandering through the city trying to find her way back. She wasn't thinking that far ahead. She was drunk. She knew it and didn't care. Shikamaru and the rest of the leaf village were far from her mind and that was all that mattered.

Akio and Hitoshi quickly reached for Rayne as she started to stumble forward. They quickly caught her before she could fall which woke her up a little.

"I'm fine, I swear" she laughed, sounding slurred.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you are Rayne" said Akio before letting her go. "Come on Rayne, we still have a while to go before we get to my house so you need to stay awake" he laughed.

She laughed again. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

Hitoshi just rolled his eyes. Akio knew his mother wouldn't be happy if he brought her to his house like this but he couldn't let her go home like this. It would be a horrible first impression but there wasn't an option. So they kept walking, or in Rayne's case, stumbling. This time, Akio was more than ready to catch her. He walked and front of her and as soon as she stumbled he crouched down so she landed on his back. He quickly grabbed her legs before she realized what happend. He stood up and began to walk again with her now on his back.

"Hey what the hell?" she gasped. "Put me down you punk!" Rayne punched him in the shoulder and tried to free himself but Akio wouldn't let go.

"Calm down!" he laughed. "This is just me repaying you from the one time you had to cary me."

"It is not! I can walk by myself. Hitoshi make him let me go!"

"Sorry Rayne, Akio's right."

"You traitor!" whinned the drunken girl.

Hitoshi laughed softly while they continued walking. Rayne gave up fighting quickly and let her arms drop over Akio's shoulders. She let out a sigh of defeat and rested her head on the boy's shoulder. It wasn't so bad, she decided. She was tired and it sure as hell beat walking. Within a few minutes the motion of Akio walking had put her to sleep.

"Rayne? Hey, Rayne!" A girl giggled and Rayne struggled to lift her head off Akio's shoulder. "You are always so lazy. Come on, you need to wake up"

Rayne knew that voice, how could she ever forget it? "Himiko?" But that didn't make sense. Himiko and Kaede were both back in the Leaf Village where they were safe from her. She was here with Akio and Hitoshi know. She was in the Sand Village... wasn't she? She opened her eyes slowly. She was still in the Sand Village and she was still being carried by Akio.

But Himiko was there. She was following along side her and the boys but neither of them seemed to notice.

"Oh good your awake." she smiled. "We need to hurry."

Rayne tried to ask her why but no words would come out of her mouth.

"Rayne, are you even listening to me? Pay attention!"

Rayne couldn't help but laugh. It was without a doubt Himiko. There she was always ordering them around like she was her mother. She always was the responsible one. Himiko was always watching out for her and Kaede. The two of them got into so much trouble. She grinned thinking about all the times Himiko had chased after them, yelling the entire time.

"Rayne! This is no time to be laughing! Would could be funny about this?" she said accusingly. Something must have been wrong by the look on her face. Rayne couldn't help but wonder if something had happened to Kaede. She once again tried to ask but words wouldn't come out.

Himiko glanced behind them, getting progressivly more terrified.

"Come on! Rayne we don't have time to mess around! It'll get us if we wait much longer."

The Kunoichi tried to look behind them to see what it was that had her friend so scarred but she couldn't move her body. They kept moving forward and she still felt the swaying motion of Akio walking.

"Please!" Himiko was sounding frantic. "That thing is going to get us, please! That wolf is going to kill us if we don't move!"

Wolf? Rayne found herself even more confused. What wolf? Madarou? They had already defeated him so how could that be? She wanted to tell Himiko that, to let her know that there was nothing to be afraid of. There was no wolf and they were clearly in the sand-

Suddenly the sceanery started to blur. The dry dessert with its beige walls and sandy buildings started to disapear. Large trees and a snow covered ground replaced it. It only stayed like that for a few minutes before quickly changing back. Then the area around them started to change, flashing between both scenes. Areas of misplaced forest appeared in the city and swirling sand changed over into blinding snow in others.

"Oh God! Kaede, Run!" Himiko screamed. Rayne was quickly filled with deep feeling of dread and she was now afaid for her friends' lives.

A man screamed out in pain.

Rayne was jolted awake as Akio suddenly stopped moving. Her heart was racing and she was breathing way to hard. She realized she had only been dreaming. Her short nap had cleared her head a little bit and she was more aware of her surroundings. Akio and Hitoshi had failed to notice her startled awakening. She quickly looked around to see what had caught their attention enough to make them stop.

"Did you hear that?" whispered Hitoshi.

"Hear wha-" Rayne tried to ask but she was quickly shushed by Akio. He let her drop down to the ground and stand by herself. The three genin all stood around watching and listening, for what, Rayne didn't know. They waited a few seconds then they heard it, Rayne better than the two boys.

A man screamed again.

Rayne realized that the scream she heard had not been just in her dream.

"That way" she said pointing in the direction of the noise, and then all three of them took off running.

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Poop, I typed up a really nice closing note all upside down like but I couldn't copy and paste it into here because well, it was upside down and this doesn't support that format... anyways it went something like this. Hooray for a new chapter right? Also I learned to type upside down! Neat right? But yeah, thanks always for taking time to read the garbage my mind makes up and my hands help it type up. Please review okay? And I promise to try, key word being try, to update soon. I think I have gotten over my writers block for now so it should be good. And I would quickly like to thank my twin for the lucky Taillow foot she gave me that I wear around my neck when writing. It has once again saved me from writers block.
~Reiko