Struggle - 11

After having defeated Sakon and Ukon Shikamaru and what remained of his team had backtracked a ways and then stopped to rest, still struggling to regain their energy.

Chouji was still enduring the excruciating effects of his food pills, even though the worst of it had been buffered by Shikamaru's earlier interference. The Nara watched his friend while he sat wordlessly, not looking like his usual, plump self, 'He has to get back to Konoha soon to get some of Dad's antidote. Even if it's not bad now he can't go much longer without it.'

He also had to put into perspective Kiba's less-than-adequate health. He had a number of cuts and stab wounds and Akamaru, he could see, was even worse off than his master, 'And while we're all too exhausted to drag ourselves back to Konoha for help, who knows what's going on with Naruto and Hinata up ahead?'

Shikamaru was too bitter at the moment to admit that they had failed. He was still stubbornly believing that his last two subordinates had been able to retrieve the barrel, and by proxy, completed the mission objective. Yet still, being as intellectually attuned as he was, Shikamaru sensed that Naruto and Hinata were probably faced with their own obstacles as well.

'Even if we went looking for those two to help them, we've only got a few kunai between us and barely any chakra…' Shikamaru thought to himself, leaning his chin on his palm as he sat cross-legged under an ash tree with his teammates, 'We'd probably endanger them even more by showing up, we're so helpless right now. If another Sound ninja shows up we're as good as dead.'

He glanced over to Kiba who was beginning to nod off, too drained to withstand consciousness any longer, 'And while we sit here we have no idea where Neji is, or what happened to him, for that matter! I've ruined my team. Half of them could be dead by now and I wouldn't even know it…'

"Yo! You all look like shit!"

For a moment Shikamaru looked around stupidly, wondering where the shout had come from. He and his bewildered companions looked up to see an enormous bird descending. It took a few moments for it to register in Shikamaru's brain that back up had arrived.

"I never thought I'd ever be happier to see anything other than barbeque…" Chouji mumbled, smiling contentedly as Sato and Lee leapt off of the giant owl and moved to their fellow Leaf ninja.

"It is good to see you too, Chouji-kun!" Lee agreed, pulling the Akimichi to his feet, stunned by how thin he suddenly was.

Kiba hauled himself to his feet, keeping his ninken close to his chest, "Where the hell did you come from? I thought you were sent out on different missions!"

"When we heard what was going on we kind of 'jumped ship' to help you guys," Sato answered, pulling up Shikamaru who was too lazy to stand on his own, "We held off that bone-guy so Naruto-kun and Sunshine could go ahead after Sasuke and Haku."

It then made sense to the Nara why both Lee and the young Hatake looked so terribly beat-up, "That must have been tricky. That guy was the strongest out of all of them." Sato nodded in confirmation and Shikamaru continued, "Well then, it'll be easier for Leaf ninja to chase other Leaf ninja, I suppose. Naruto won't come back without them."

The exhausted bunch of genin and their chunin leader clambered onto the oversized owl. They were warned not to pull out any feathers or they'd be facing their first sky-diving lesson.

It was crowded on the bird's back and they all seemed to lean against each other pathetically as the ground shrank away and Kutaiku began heading south, back in the direction of their village.

As strong winds whipped past their faces Sato let them in on another piece of information, "We lost Tenten a while back…I don't think we should go back to Konoha without knowing where she ended up!"

Shikamaru was not pleased that they hadn't mentioned it sooner, "Could you be any more troublesome?"

Lee advised the Nara that they didn't question Sato's many levels of recklessness.

Sato summoned a second owl, jet-black unlike Kutaiku's light plumage, and leapt onto his back as he soared close to his fellow avian. Lee followed, realizing Sato's objective.

"You guys need medical attention as soon as possible, so you go ahead back to Leaf with Kutaiku," The silver haired nin proposed, "Lee and I will go with Gyorai to find Tenten."

Kutaiku continued ahead while the ebony owl wheeled around in the air, and began to move far faster than the previous owl would have been able to, scanning the ground for any signs of movement.

It wasn't long after Gyorai had something to report, "I can see evidence of a battle down below. Shall we examine the area?"

Sato agreed and Gyorai quickly landed, allowing his passengers to leap off and inspect the small plot of forest. Lee made note of the startling number of projectiles that were scattered around the clearing, and Sato found the body of the Sound ninja that Joushou had spoken of earlier.

"These weapons are most certainly Tenten's!" Lee announced confidently, "She must have happened upon Neji somewhere around here, which explains why he did not rejoin Shikamaru-kun's group!"

Sato didn't like the look of the many blood puddles dotting the ground, "Well that's definitely a relief. If they went back to Konoha then our work here is done…let's get going."

Lee frowned, "Aren't we going to look for Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan now?"

The Hatake was silent for a long moment, "Even if we did; what could we do? You can barely stand up and I'm out of chakra. Without Gyorai we're sitting ducks so long as we're out here. We should do what Shikamaru said and go back while we can."

"But I-!" Lee was interrupted by a silencing shriek from the nearby owl. Sato motioned for his friend to also get on Gyorai's back, which he reluctantly did.

After taking off and turning south, Sato did add, "There's no reason to worry. By now my idiot-uncle is probably back from his mission, so I'll just tell him to go look for them. What do you say to that?"

"Perhaps sending a jounin to look would be wiser…" Lee admitted and added with a grin, "And once Gai-sensei returns maybe he will go as well!"

*

"Sasuke, we have to go back now. Our teammates are in danger with so many Sound ninja out here causing havoc!" Haku insisted, frustrated that the Uchiha was completely immune to everything he had been saying.

"Go home then and do something if you're so worried."

"You cannot abandon your village!" The dark haired boy shouted ardently, "You owe nothing to Sound! You are a Leaf shinobi!"

Sasuke's eyes darkened, "This is the only way I'm going to get stronger. I'll never be able to kill Itachi if all I do is waste my time in a spineless village like Konoha."

"You don't know that," Haku pointed out, his voice lowering, "I know what happened to you that day. I was there. I can see why you want revenge so badly, but when you go about it this way you're putting people's lives at risk."

"As it goes, lives aren't worth much these days…" The Uchiha growled, "My brother didn't much care about the consequences of killing our entire clan. Who are you to lecture me? You don't know anything!"

It was silent on top of the statue for a long while.

"We are the same." Haku said softly, "When I was young my father murdered my mother before trying to kill me. I was alone and every minute of it was misery. But I lived through it, and I found a purpose in life beyond what I thought I had…you cannot let your hatred consume you this way."

Sasuke's voice was saturated with contempt, "Whatever you think you know does not compare to what I've been through! You don't understand what it'd be like to have a brother!"

"Maybe I know better than you do," The water-nin answered boldly, "Because I have two of them!"

It was then the Uchiha's eyes blazed with the power of the Sharingan. Haku barely had any time to react as Sasuke attacked without warning, loath to what he had been trying to say.

A fearsome kick landed in Haku's gut and he was sent tumbling over the side of the statue.

*

"Hinata!" Naruto rushed up a rocky slope that was a fair distance away from the river's edge after spotting the Hyuga girl perched on top of a boulder. She was staring at Kabuto and the blonde boy wondered what she was thinking in that moment.

'If he killed Neji or anyone else, what are we supposed to do?' Naruto's thoughts made him feel sick to his stomach, 'Is she really going to try to settle this? We take him on here and now while Haku-kun deals with Sasuke?'

He didn't know if leaving Haku on his own was the wisest thing to do at such a chaotic time. But like Hinata he knew that he'd never be satisfied until his hands were red with the Sound ninja's filthy blood.

"You two are so incredibly predictable…" Kabuto sneered, adjusting his glasses from his place near a fallen tree, "I'm sure Haku is following Sasuke to Sound at this very moment. After all, it's not so hard to believe, is it?" He smirked, adding, "Someone with such a power over ice can easily freeze their heart and seize power if they wanted to. I'm sure Haku-kun knows what he wants."

"There's no way in hell that's going to happen!" Naruto roared furiously, "This time I am going to make you pay for all that you've done to my friends!"

Kabuto said nothing in response, and kept the same sickening grin on his face that seemed to reflect the blackness of his heart.

Naruto could feel a great stirring within the kunoichi beside him, and he observed the bright radiance of the Byakugan in her eyes as she lifted her head authoritatively, and for a brief moment he could see a glimmer of her father's indomitable spirit in her.

"I will show you the same mercy you showed Neji-niisan!" Hinata cried, raising her palms, readying the most brutal Jyukken strikes she had knowledge of, "Prepare to face the true wrath of a Hyuga!"

The Oto nin laughed at her, "Be serious now, Hinata-hime! If your cousin didn't put up a challenge then there's no way that you will!"

"When someone says that they're going to kill you…" Naruto's voice had dropped a few octaves and become a guttural snarl, "That's something that you should always take seriously!"