Hello, everyone! How have you been lately? I've done all my exams for now so hopefully, my grades will get better than before and as I promised, I'll update Chapter 8 between Nov-Dec so here it is! I'm sorry for keeping you waiting (and again, thanks a lot for the wonderful faves and alerts) but please enjoy reading this chapter. I just hope that my writing skills won't get worse since I stop writing for so long. (Cries)

Beta: Natoya

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Keys:

"Talks"

'Thoughts'

Chapter 8: Obstacles

"It's getting late, I better hurry and meet up with the others." A brunet with cold, stern blue eyes glanced at the beautiful, breathtaking sunset whilst quickening his pace.

"Hey, mutt. We're getting close to the entrance." He paused when he realized his so-called friend didn't answer him.

"Hey, what are you…"

Before he could finish his sentence, an audible snore reached his ears and he sighed when he knew where that sound came from.

"I can't believe he can fall asleep at a time like this."

After a few minutes of running and panting, Kaiba soon saw everyone waiting for them at the entrance. When he reached his destination, he hurriedly asked the question that surged through his brain.

"So, did you find them?"

The sight of his cousins and friends shaking their heads made him more depressed but he soon snapped out from his thoughts when someone called out to him and hesitantly inquired,

"What happened to Joey?"

Kaiba glanced at the person behind him before he calmly replied,

"He's just got bitten by a snake, but I sucked the venom out of his injury so he should be fine for now."

The white haired youth whose name was Ryou sighed but startled when he heard Kaiba's immediate scream.

"Marik, what the hell happened to you?"

The guy with pineapple-shaped hair who was known as Marik winced before saying,

"Erm…it's…uh…"

"He got stung by bees because he accidentally knocked down the beehive." Came a simple explanation from his look-alike, Malik.

Kaiba had a sudden urge to cover his face with one hand but couldn't since he was carrying Joey.

"How can you be so careless?" He said with a frustrated sigh. "Anyways, we'll continue to search for them tomorrow morning so for now, let's have dinner together and Ryou, take Wheeler and treat his wounds."

Ryou nodded in response and slowly but carefully, took the sleeping Joey away from Kaiba's grasp.

"Okay, I will."

"As for you Malik…" Kaiba paused to look at the mauve-eyed boy who's staring back at him with a questioning look on his face.

"I want you to help Marik treat his injuries."

Malik gave a grumpy look at his 'twin', then back to Kaiba, and again back to his 'twin' before he release a disappointed sigh and simply said,

"Fine."

It was during that time that Kaiba and the others went back to their respective homes to do their own business before they went to Ryou's tent to have dinner together. Since Joey couldn't walk because of his injured leg, Ryou had to bring his food to his own room where his honey-brown eyed friend rested. He decided that he would sleep on the floor and look after his friend for the time being.

A few hours after dinner, Kaiba and Bakura bid their goodbyes and went back to their cottage silently but on their way home, the tallest of the two ogled at the night blue sky which showed nothing but sparkling little stars and a full moon as round as a pearl. At the same time, a thought that gave him a shiver swam through his mind.

'For some reason, I had a feeling that something bad is going to happen real soon.' Kaiba ruminated while watching Bakura opening their old wooden cottage door. 'I hope you're alright, Yami.'

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest…

A ruby-eyed adolescent gazed at the gloomy, dark sky while having various thoughts running through his brain. He was meditating so much that he didn't notice his younger look-alike was staring at him for a long time.

"Hey, Yami?"

Yami snapped out from his thoughts when he heard his name being called.

"Yes, what is it?" He spoke with a charming smile marked on his lips.

"Is something bothering you?"

Yami was slightly surprised at first, but quickly gave his companion a reassuring smile.

"No, it's nothing…I'm just thinking. That's all."

"But the look on your face tells me it isn't."

Yami paused to look at Yugi's concerned expression before he sincerely answered,

"I'm trying to think of a way to get out of this place."

"I see." Was the only response he got from his amethyst-eyed pal. "I hope we can escape from here soon, the others must have been worried and start to search for us by now."

"You're right but it's not safe to wander around the woods right now so we have to stay here for the night."

The younger of the two nodded tardily before he gave Yami a sad whisper. "Yeah."

Yugi's expression saddened him as well but they had no choice but to sleep here until tomorrow morning. Just before he was about to lie on a tree trunk and drift to sleep, he heard a sneeze coming from his 'twin' but luckily, he brought along his sweater so he draped it over Yugi's shoulders to give him warmth.

"Yami, you don't have to…"

"It's okay, you can have my sweater. I don't need it anyway."

"Are you sure?" The smaller tri-colored haired teen gave him a worried look but Yami nodded while releasing the same attractive smile. At that same moment, he thought to himself mutely,

'I'm a Fire Elemental after all so I can withstand the cold temperature.'

Yugi smiled sweetly before he wrapped Yami's sweater round his fragile body and lay on the tree trunk with a content sigh.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Goodnight Yugi."

"Goodnight Yami."

Yami stared at the deep blue sky once again whilst cogitating with an inward smile.

'It's nice to see Yugi smiles like that once in a while, it somehow gives a warm pleasant feeling inside me.'

That was his last thought before drowsiness overtook both his body and mind and in that instant, the two comrades fell into a deep slumber but little did they know that something bad was going to happen very soon.

The next day morning after breakfast, in Ryou's tent…

"Ryou!"

The white-haired teenager spun round to look at his schoolmate who was outlandishly, running towards him with a pleading look on his features. Before Ryou could react, the Egyptian jumped on him and hugged him tightly.

"Malik, let go of me. You're going to squeeze me to death!"

"Oh Ryou, please help me. I can't stand it anymore!"

"What's wrong?" He tranquilly asked when Malik finally let go of him.

"It's…It's…"

"It's what?"

"It's that stupid jerk, Marik!" He spoke aloud in abhorrence.

"What about him?" The curious brown-eyed stripling inquired as calm as always.

"Well, you know that he's sleeping in my room because you guys told me…no, more like forced me to let him stay with me so that I can treat his injuries and stuff, right?"

Ryou chuckled when he heard Malik trying to stress the word 'forced'. "Yeah, so?"

"So, I obediently did what you guys told me to but…"

"But what?"

"When I was treating his bruises and injuries, I had a feeling that he was watching me like a hunting predator while sending hot breaths near my ears and…"

"And?"

Malik gulped and took a deep breath before whispering something in his friend's ear.

"He licked my face as though I was a sweet candy to him."

Silence engulfed the duo but shortly after a minute, Ryou looked at his friend and simply said,

"Is that all?"

Malik shook his head and quickly added,

"No, there's more. During midnight when we were both asleep, I heard something dropping down from the bed and then before I realize it, two hands wrapped around my body and I opened my eyes to see Marik! That idiot was hugging me like he thought I was his cute fluffy teddy bear and wouldn't let me go until this morning!"

He didn't expect his Newcastle friend to laugh after that so he flashed Ryou an infuriated look. "Hey, cut it out will you?"

The albino soon stopped laughing and after taking a few deep breaths, smiled at him with his usual cheerful look.

"That's really sweet, Malik."

"No, it's not! I can't stand him anymore, so can you please tell Kaiba to take his foolish cousin back to his place? I don't wanna stay a whole day with him." The purple-eyed adolescent begged while trying to give him his infamous puppy eyes that seemed not to have any effect on his buddy.

"I'm so sorry Malik but there's nothing I can do."

"Yes, you can! Come on, please…"

"Ah! I suddenly remember that my cookies are nearly done so I'm going to the kitchen and check them out, okay?"

Ryou leisurely walked away but the Egyptian pulled his apron with all his strength and continued to supplicate but to no avail. "Don't worry, Malik. I'm sure Marik isn't such a bad person, he just wants to have fun with you…"

"No, it's not! Please Ryou, please…"

"Sorry, you have to figure it out yourself." Were his last words before he disappeared into the kitchen, leaving his tan-skinned friend behind.

"You're so mean…" Malik spoke with a pout and glared at the kitchen door for a while before he went back to his own tent and tried to solve the problem on his own. He didn't notice Ryou watching him going out from the tent while at the same time, thought dejectedly to himself,

'I'm sorry Malik.'

The white-haired youngster thought with an unhappy sigh before he went back to the kitchen.

'But I understand how you feel about someone doing unpleasant things to you.'

The white-haired boy then ruminating about the event that happened previous night, with Bakura ogling at him with those peculiar eyes during dinner and in the kitchen after dinner, Bakura went in not to help him cleaning dishes, but to gaze at him as though Ryou was his precious untouchable treasure.

'I wonder why he was staring at me with those strange eyes of his.'

An hour later, Kaiba told everyone to continue searching for their comrades. However, Ryou suddenly informed them that Joey had a fever so he had to stay and took care of him.

"I assume that infection occurred during the snake's bite but he will fully recover the next morning." Ryou explained before receiving a nod from the tallest man of the group.

"Alright, let's go Bakura."

"Wait, what about me?" Malik wailed and was about to run if Ryou hadn't grabbed his shirt collar and ordered him to stay.

"Malik, you need to stay here and take care of Marik."

"But he's…"

"No, he needs some rest and you're in charge of taking care of him." Ryou retorted before he dragged the sniveling Malik back to their respective tents.

When Kaiba and Bakura were far away from the tents, the brown-eyed stripling gave a mischievous look to his older cousin and said,

"Since there's only two of us, we might as well use our elemental powers to search for them, that'll be quicker."

"No, we shouldn't…"

"Why not?" Bakura interrupted dismally with an annoyed expression on his face.

"If you don't want to, then fine but I'm doing it."

Before Kaiba could protest, the white-haired adolescent speedily flew above the sky and disappeared in a split second.

"That idiot." The brunet grunted before he started to run towards north but a few minutes later, strong winds followed by dark clouds headed towards the forest and without warning, a loud piercing scream reached Kaiba's ears before he felt something hard knocked him off the ground.

"This is bad!" Bakura who was sitting on Kaiba's back exclaimed with panic in his voice.

"Get your ass off my back!" the older cousin shouted in anger before he felt the weigh on him disappeared and stood up to brush off the dirt that stained on his clothes. "What is it?"

"The storm is coming."

That sentence instantly caused the brunet to stop his movements as he quickly replied,

"We better hurry back to our cottage before it's too late."

"Right."

So, the two Elementals went back to their cottage as fast as they could and just when they reached their destination, few drops of rain dripped down from the sky.

"I wonder if the cottage is able to withstand the strong wind." Kaiba whispered more to himself than his cousin but Bakura heard him clear enough so he lay on his wooden bed and spoke confidently,

"Of course it can, I'm sure the storm won't turn out that bad. What can go wrong?"

Nearly two hours later, a doorbell was heard inside Ryou's tent and the owner of the tent ran towards the door to reveal…two drenched teenagers standing on the front door impatiently.

"Oh my, what happen to you guys?"

"Can you let us enter? We're freezing out here!" Bakura sputtered furiously before his younger 'twin' allowed them to enter the room.

Apparently, the storm had gotten so strong that the wind eventually destroyed their cottage and had no choice but to stay in Ryou's and Joey's tents for the time being.

"So, I guess you stay in my tent while Kaiba stay in Joey's." Ryou said to his older 'twin' while watching his two friends wiping their wet faces with their given towels.

Bakura released a disappointed sigh before nodding. "Yeah."

'And this is only the beginning.' Kaiba thought quietly to himself while wondering when the storm will end. 'I wonder what Yami and Yugi are doing now. It must be hard for them since the storm came unexpectedly but I believe Yami will think of something. I'm just worried that he will use his elemental power and reveal our identity.'

"Kaiba?"

The tallest of the three brought out from his thoughts and promptly answered,

"Yes?"

"Are you thinking about Yugi and Yami?"

The blue-eyed Water Elemental stared at the fretful Ryou for a while before nodding. "Yeah."

The younger white-haired boy looked down whilst allowing his hands to turn into fists just to control his fear. "I'm worried about them too, why did the storm happens at a time like this?"

Ryou was obsessed in his thoughts that he didn't realize his older 'twin' was standing beside him.

"Don't worry so much, I'm sure they'll be just fine. They're not little children anymore." Bakura reassured him, which was very rare for a person like him to say such things. Even Kaiba's stunned eyes proved this point.

Ryou flashed his taller look-alike a grateful smile before replying,

"Thank you, I appreciate that. Let's just hope that they'll be alright until the storm subsides."

Bakura nodded slightly before he slowly made his way to the kitchen. "I'm going to find something to eat."

"I'm coming too." Ryou spoke aloud before he hastily went towards the kitchen as well, leaving Kaiba alone in the living room.

"Hmm, things are starting to get interesting." The brunet mused with a playful smirk on his lips before he heard Ryou's voice complaining to Bakura about taking his chocolate muffins secretly again. Soon after that, he heard a strident thunder not far away from the tent and that caused his peaceful expression replaced to anxiousness.

"This might be the worst storm we've ever encountered."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest…

"Where are you going, Yami? No, wait…the storm is getting stronger now. No, don't go…Yami!"

To Be Continued…

That's the end of Chapter 8! I'm sorry if there's nothing special or funny here but that's why I add a cliffhanger! Lol…I hope you enjoy reading this chapter even though it's a little boring but I make it up to it in the next chapter if I get a better idea of course. It seems that my 'plot bunnies' are sleeping because I didn't write this story for so long, that's the reason why I couldn't write a better chapter it seems. Forgive me and please support me by continue reading this story. I'll appreciate if you do! (Smiles)

It looks like our heroes are facing more troubles from time to time, so the word 'obstacles' is suitable for this chapter's title, isn't it? What will happen to Yugi and Yami once the storm gets stronger I wonder.

Faves and Alerts are welcomed as always! XD And stay tune for Chapter 9: Like!

Finally, review pretty please? :3