Sorry for the chapter being short as it is but I needed to set up for what's going to go on as the next chapter will contain two events going on at the same time.

Chapter 12: Events

Ino tried her best to keep up with Naruto who was in front of her. She glanced behind her to see the walls of Konoha fade into the darkness. She turned back to find Naruto getting further ahead of her.

"Naruto!" she yelled but he didn't hear her.

Suddenly, the branch she landed on cracked and broke. She fell from the trees she was leaping from. Screaming all the way down and closed her eyes knowing she was going to hit the ground below her hard but the pain never came. Ino opened her eyes to find that she had been caught by Kotetsu.

"Kotetsu?" she asked, confused.

"Sorry Ino, I heard screaming and looked up to see you falling from the trees," Kotetsu said.

"Thanks for being at the right place at the right time then," Ino said.

Kotetsu put the girl down. Ino looked around to see if Shikamaru and Choji were with him but it looked like Kotetsu was alone.

"Where's Shikamaru and Choji?" the Yamanaka asked.

"That's kind of a long story," replied Kotetsu. "Me and Shikamaru were camping inside the Hokage Tower. He fell asleep and I know he's going to be pissed at me when we see each other again but after a while, I started hearing Walkers at the door and I got scared and left Konoha early. I tried to wake up Shikamaru but I guess he was so exhausted, he didn't respond and I couldn't take the fear anymore and split and Shikamaru sent Choji away so he's probably waiting at the rendevous point."

"You're a baka and Shikamaru is going to be pissed," Ino said.

Ino turned away from Kotetsu and began walking. She was stopped in her tracks when Kotetsu grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To try and catch up to Naruto," she replied

"It's not really safe out here," Kotetsu said.

"Well I'm not going to stay here and with the way you're talking, it sounds like you're not returning to the group!" Ino yelled in frustration.

"No, I'll return to the group. I just want you to go out there by yourself, Naruto and Shikamaru both would kill me if I did," said Kotetsu.

"Well come on then, the longer we stand here, the further away Naruto gets!"

Ino and Kotetsu jumped through the trees in search for the rock Shikamaru had desginated as a rendevous point. She was sure thats where Naruto would be if he was waiting for her.

"Stop!" yelled Kotetsu.

"What is it?" Ino asked angrily.

"I sense something off," replied Kotetsu.

Ino looked around their surroundings, though she couldn't see much because of the cover of darkness. However, nothing looked out of the ordinary. She then heard a swish in the air.

"Look out!" Kotetsu yelled as he swung his huge, shell-like weapon and batted away a kunai out of Ino's path.

"Where did that come from?" Ino asked.

"It came from me," said a male's voice from another tree near the two Konoha-nin.

The man had short, spikey brown hair. He was wearing a stitched up tan shirt and pants and wearing googles. He looked like he was a homeless man.

"I know who you are, you're Kai, an S-Class Missing-nin from Amekagure," said Kotetsu.

"You're well informed but I think I'll be taking the girl," said Kai.

Before Kotetsu could go after Kai, Ino screamed as he suddenly felt excruciating pain coming from his stomach. He slowly looked down to see a katana blade had pierced through his stomach from behind him as blood dripped off the blade. He looked behind him to find another male, he looked a little younger than Kai with medium length, light-brown hair. He was wearing the same clothing as Kai.

"Meet my younger brother, Tai," Kai said. "You see, we work as a team. I distracted you so cleverly that you didn't even notice there was another person around."

"Kotetsu!" Ino yelled.

She tried to run away but when she did, Kai appeared in front of her. Before Ino could defend herself in any way, Kai karate chopped her in the back of the neck and fell unconcious.

"Then the next thing was when I woke up, that Kai bastard tried to rape me when you guys decided to blow up the place," Ino said as tears fell after telling her story.

During the explanation of how she got herself in that situation, Naruto had moved from sitting beside her to having sat behind her with his arms wrapped around her to comfort her.

"What about Kotetsu? Since he was stabbed, did he die?" asked Shikamaru.

"I don't know, he was still alive when kai knocked me unconcious," Ino replied.

Shikamaru stood up from where he was sitting.

"Even though he cowardly left me while I was still sleeping in the Hokage Tower, he was still my friend and comrade and was with us from the very beginning of all this shit. We need to go back to see if he's still alvie," Shikamaru said.

"No, we don't need to go back out there, he was stabbed through the stomach for Kami's sake, you had to have bled to death!" Ino pleaded.

"Ino, I need to make sure for my own conscience," Shikamaru said.

"Ino's right Shikamaru, it's too dangerous to take off to see if he's alive or not," Choji added. "I know he helped us a lot when this virus or whatever the hell is going on happened, but going out there when it's more than likely he is dead, it's just suicide man."

Shikamaru looked at Naruto, he was the only one who hadn't supported or protested Shikamaru's suggestion. Naruto looked back and shook his head, he didn't really want to be involved with the conversation of searching for Kotetsu.

"I don't think it's a good idea either, we just settled here and it seems like a good place to hide from Walkers and let us rest and recover. If you really think about it, when he left you in that Hokage Tower, he betrayed the group," Naruto replied.

"Fine, we won't go," Shikamaru sighed.

He walked into the cave to his sleeping back and crawled in it as he decided to go to sleep for the night. Choji decided he was going to do the same thing leaving Naruto and Ino the only one's awake. He looked into her blue eyes as they seemed to sparkle in the light of the fire they had going. He cupped her face with his hand.

"I'm so glad I was able to find you and rescue you with the use of my Senjutsu, I don't think I would know what to do if you weren't around," Naruto said.

Ino said nothing and stole a kiss from Naruto which he gladly let her have.

"Come on, it's probably late, we should get some rest too," Naruto said.

Ino nodded as Naruto helped her to her feet. They both walked into the cave hand in hand toward their sleeping bags as well.

Naruto opened his eyes to find himself staring at the cave ceiling. He turned to see Ino sleeping right next to him. He smiled as he quietly got up from his sleeping bag. He walked outside the cave and over the edge of the hill and relieved himself. Once he was done, he washed his hands in the lake and headed back inside the cave. As he was walking back to his sleeping bag he noticed Shikamaru's was empty and there was a scroll on top of it. He grabbed the scroll and pumped some chakra into it and the scroll opened.

'To Naruto, Choji and Ino,

I hate to do this to you but Kotetsu was heavy on my mind and I couldn't sleep. I know you guys told me it was a suicide mission but I had to se eif he was still alive or died. I'll be back in a few days so please don't come looking for me.

Sincerely, Shikamaru.

P.S. I'm handing leadership of the grouo over to Naruto, he's the one that's been handling the situation far better than anyone else.'

"God damn it!" Naruto yelled. He ended up waking up Choji and Ino.

"What is it Naruto?" Ino asked as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Shikamaru went off on his own to find Kotetsu," Naruto revealed.

"What?" Choji yelled, "Come on we got to go get him!"

"I will do it," Naruto said. "You and Ino stay here."

"I will not stay here!" yelled Ino, "I'm going with you!"

"Yeah, I can't..." Choji didn't finish his sentence as he was interrupted.

"Yes, you're going to stay here. Shikamaru has left me in charge of the group and you will do as I say and if you don't belueve me Choji, read the scroll Shikamaru left us," Naruto said as he tossed the scroll to Choji.

"And as for you Ino, I wouldn't know what I'd do if you got hurt, so please stay here for me," Naruto begged.

Ino sighed, "Okay but please be careful."

"I will," Naruto said. The two shared a passionate kiss which Naruto reluctantly broke.

He quickly jumped down the hill and into the trees to begin searching for Shikamaru. Ino shed a small tear out of worry but she was shaken out of her thoughts when she heard an explosion on the other side of the water pool. Choji came running out of the cave.

"Sounds like our explosive tag perimeter has been breached!" Choji yelled.

Ino ran across the water pool to get to the blast zone quicker and looked down the hill to find someone she never thought she'd see again.