Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Koorikage ❯ Yukigakure ( Chapter 4 )

Now we get to see the boys' mission. (And Tenten, of course). This is where things really start to get interesting, and the plot really starts to take off. Also, as has been pointed out to me, Naruto's country is called "Hi no Kuni," not "Hokuni." I knew that, too - or at least I should have, seeing as I'm studying the language and all. I need to pay more attention when I'm writing stuff at two in the morning. (That's when I do most of my writing, as for some reason I feel more creative in the wee hours of the morning).

I really don't have much else to say, except that one of my favorite characters is introduced in this chapter. Try and see if you can figure out who. (Hint: It's pretty obvious).

Chapter Four - Yukigakure

"What was all that about?" Naruto asked as they left the Hokage's tower. "They seemed really upset when we told them where we were going."

Shikamaru spared his companion an annoyed glance. "They were worried about us, fool," he said.

"Why, though?" Naruto pressed. "It's not like we were being sent off to kill Orochimaru or something. And why did Ino get all angry-sounding all of a sudden?"

Shikamaru merely glared at the blonde ninja from the corners of his eyes and said nothing. "Baka."

When it finally became clear that he wasn't going to get a response, Naruto moved on to another topic. "We should go get our equipment ready, ne? Sunset isn't too long from now."

Shikamaru looked up at the sky. "Aa." Then he looked back at Naruto. "I'll see you at the gate in about thirty minutes. Don't forget anything."

"Right!" and Naruto was off.

"Why is he always in such a hurry?" Shikamaru wondered. He turned to look back to look at the Hokage's tower, and recalled the state-of-affairs briefing he'd attended the other day. "Ino, if she's sending you where I think she's sending you, you have to be careful too."

-----

Tenten never did like standing around. It wasn't that she hungered for action or that she was the type of person who needed to keep busy for any particular reason, she just got bored. So as she and her two old teammates were waiting for the other two members of their mission, she gave into curiosity and asked the question that had been on her mind since Gai-sensei had told them they'd be going on a high-profile mission.

"Why do you think we were chosen for this mission?"

Neji, not surprisingly, was the one who answered her.

"It's quite simple. You were chosen because infiltration is always easier for kunoichi, and because you are accustomed to working with the two of us." He indicated Lee and himself. "Lee was chosen because his chakura patterns do not immediately reveal that he is a shinobi, even to somebody examining him for that purpose. He will appear to anyone who sees him as merely an abnormally strong martial artist. I was chosen because my Byakugan is ideal for information gathering and missions such as this. Nara was added because of his superb methods of strategy and deduction. And, in a pinch, each of us is capable of looking after ourselves."

"What about Naruto-kun?" Lee asked.

Neji smiled slightly. "He was sent so none of us will have to worry about looking after ourselves."

-----

"They're all here…except Naruto," observed Shikamaru as he approached the group. "Now we'll have to sit and wait for him. How bothersome."

"Konbanwa, Nara-kun!" Lee greeted affably with a wave.

"Where is Uzumaki?" Neji asked as he stepped up to them.

"How should I know?" Shikamaru asked gruffly. "The last I saw of him was half an hour ago."

"Naruto-kun will be here, even if he is a little late," Lee stated confidently. "Remember who his sensei was, after all." Shikamaru noticed that Neji emitted a small chuckle and was smirking slightly.

"So you're in command of this mission, right Nara-kun?" Tenten asked, obviously trying to make conversation; Tsunade had appointed him team leader in front of all of them.

"Aa," he answered simply. "And just call me Shikamaru. I don't like all that formal surname crap." Besides, if they were going to be working on a mission together for a long period of time, they should trust each other enough to feel comfortable using given names. But it would be too troublesome to explain all that.

"Um, okay," Tenten replied.

"Oi! Shikamaru!" The young Nara's eye twitched slightly upon hearing the voice that was shouting his name. Turning around, he answered in his usual annoyed tone, volume slightly raised.

"Naruto! You're late."

"Gomen, gomen!" Naruto apologized as he ran up to the group and caught his breath. "I ran into Kakashi-sensei, and he knew where we were going. He gave me advice on what to pack, and I had to go back because he mentioned some things I forgot."

"Does everybody know where we're going?" Shikamaru asked irritably. "I thought this was supposed to be a secret."

"Gai-sensei probably told him when he went to get you two," Lee speculated.

"Most likely," Neji said. "Shall we leave, then?" Shikamaru nodded in response. "What is our formation?"

Tenten looked surprised about something, but Shikamaru didn't really care what. He got out the paper he'd been drawing on while packing.

"I'm not as familiar with the abilities of your team as I'd like to be," he said to the Hyuuga, "but this should work." He showed them the paper. "We'll be moving as a group until we leave Hi no Kuni, but when we cross the border we'll proceed in individual succession, avoiding a straight line whenever possible. Tenten, you'll be forward scout. From what I've seen of you in various chuunin exams you have quick reflexes, and your knowledge of traps and weapons will be a good asset. Hopefully we won't run into anything like that until we near the Snow Village, but keep watch just the same. Naturally, I'll come second as team leader. Naruto, you're right in the middle as usual. You know what your job is." The blonde grinned widely and gave a thumbs-up. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Lee, you'll be next. You've got some good power and a lot of speed, so you'll be quick to help if anything happens up front, and we don't have to displace anyone else. Neji, you're naturally the rear scout; your Byakugan is invaluable. Any questions?" Everyone shook their heads, and he called for a weapons inspection. Three minutes later, they were leaping through the trees away from the village. No one knew how long it would be before they returned.

- - - - -

Tenten flew through the forest with practiced ease, vaguely aware of her teammates in her peripheral vision. She was keeping a sharp lookout for anything that might cause her team trouble. There really wasn't much to be worried about so close to the village, but Tenten was of the mindset that one could never be too careful.

All the while she couldn't stop thinking about the way Neji had behaved at the gates before they left. In every mission she'd ever been on with her old team, Neji had always been the leader. And he'd led every other mission he'd been on since becoming a chuunin. He didn't like taking orders. And yet there he was, not only accepting orders from a shinobi a year younger than himself, but asking for them. This told Tenten only one thing: Nara Shikamaru was a leader to be respected. For Neji to go along with something somebody else said so easily, he would have to trust that person implicitly. Trust and respect were hard won from Hyuuga Neji.

Signaling back to Shikamaru that there was a clearing coming up and receiving back instructions to move around it, she began to reflect on the other member of her team that she was not completely familiar with: Uzumaki Naruto.

She knew of him, of course. Everybody knew of the dead-last noisy ninja who somehow developed into one of the most powerful and skilled shinobi of his generation, becoming a favorite of both the Hokage and the legendary Gama-sennin in the process. Even though she hadn't really had much interaction with him before, ever since he defeated Neji in their first chuunin exam, he had held her utmost respect. From what she had heard from her teammates, and Hyuuga Hinata as well, Naruto was one of the most loyal, warm-hearted people she could ever have the privilege of meeting. Neji, Lee and Hinata all respected him a great deal, and she didn't need the Byakugan to see that each of them had grown in some way from their encounters with the overly cheerful ninja.

Neji was right then, that this was a team excellently suited to carry out the mission they had been assigned. She only hoped it wouldn't be as difficult as the Hokage had made it sound.

- - - - -

A day and a half into the mission, they crossed the border of the fire country and began moving in the more staggered formation that Shikamaru had designed. Naruto really had no idea how far away the ice country was, but the old bag had told them it would take at least a week to get there. The journey was going well enough. It was all people he got along with, after all - even Tenten, whom he'd never really spoken to before, turned out to be very friendly. It was a welcome change from being sent on a mission with older shinobi who remembered the Kyuubi's attack and still believed him to be the actual embodiment of the great demon.

He'd asked Neji what the jounin test was all about, since the older boy tended to know that sort of thing, and the answer he received was unexpected.

"You'll know when it is time for you to know."

He wasn't really sure what that was supposed to mean. Did Neji know and wasn't telling him? Or was that just some rule about the test that Neji knew and he didn't because no one was around to raise him and tell him such things? And what kind of rule was it, anyway? Who decided it was time for him to know? The old hag? Kakashi-sensei? Those stupid village elders?

He knew Shikamaru didn't know, so it was pointless to ask him, and the odds of Fuzzy Eyebrows knowing something like that were pretty low. He'd have to ask Tenten when they stopped to rest.

So lost in his thoughts was he that he almost didn't notice Shikamaru was giving the signal to stop. Fighting the urge to call out and ask what the problem was, he ducked out of sight under a large limb on the tree he'd landed on and watched his leader for further instructions. After a few seconds, he saw another signal saying that Neji needed to come up to the front. He relayed the signal back to Lee and went back to waiting. What was going on? If Shikamaru needed to talk to Neji, there must be something up ahead that he was worried about and wanted Neji to look at with his Byakugan.

A few seconds more and the young Hyuuga went flying past him, his presence only detectable because Naruto knew to look for it. He spoke with Shikamaru for a bit, and then the signal was given for the team to gather up. Naruto leapt from his hiding place to join them, making sure to conceal his movements just in case.

- - - - -

"What is it, Shikamaru?" Lee asked as he jumped onto the branch with the rest of them.

"This is pretty much the end of the trees," their leader informed them. "The forest continues on for a little while, but the trees get much smaller and harder to leap through. Soon they won't be big enough to hide in or even support our weight. Also, there's a team of ninja up ahead. Neji says it looks like a genin team with its jounin sensei, but couldn't see what village they were from. This could mean several things, one of them being that it's someone in disguise waiting to ambush us. Whatever the case, we're going to go around them. Neji will monitor them and if they react to our movement then we know they're on to us. We'll go a little farther through the trees and then we're on the ground. Any questions?" There were none. "All right then. Let's go. Carefully."

They made their way along, carefully avoiding the other ninja team. Neji informed them that the one who appeared to be a jounin became aware of their presence but did nothing, signifying that he knew they were not a threat. They passed without incident.

- - - - -

That had been four days ago, and not a thing had happened since to disrupt their journey. Naruto was bored out of his mind.

"Man, can't something happen? He lamented one morning when they'd stopped to rest.

Shikamaru looked at him with a very annoyed expression on his face.

"Baka. This is good. If nothing happens, then we'll be there by tomorrow at the pace we're going. Plus, it indicates that no one in the Snow Village is aware of our presence."

"Well yeah, but I'm bored," Naruto complained.

"You won't be when we arrive," Neji said calmly from where he was leaning up against a large rock. His arms were crossed and his eyes remained closed.

"Well why don't we just go right now instead of sitting around?" Naruto said.

"Because we've been traveling all night and we're tired. Not everyone has an infinite amount of stamina like you," Shikamaru said.

"But we're going to have to approach the village in darkness anyway, right?" Naruto reasoned. "If we get there tomorrow, we'll have to wait a whole extra day, but if we go now, we can get there tonight."

"I've thought of that," Shikamaru said. "But if we do that, we'll be near-exhausted upon reaching the village, and ill-fit to defend ourselves should anything happen."

"That's true," Neji agreed, opening his eyes. "However, we risk camping dangerously close to their village before we make our approach at nightfall."

"That's also true," Shikamaru nodded. "But I've weighed the options and the possible consequences, and this is the safest course of action, and the one that best facilitates our mission."

"All right," Naruto relented reluctantly. "I just wish something would happen."

That evening, they set out again. Since they were within a day's travel of their destination, they had to be extremely cautious that they weren't discovered by enemy ninja on patrol. Tenten had initially worried that Naruto's excitement would give them away, but he was apparently a professional ninja after all, and did nothing to endanger the mission.

As the high spires of the village came into view, Shikamaru called them all to a halt. They were in the trees again, as the Hidden Snow Village was surrounded by an alpine forest of sorts, so moving was easier. However, there was a clearing about fifty meters wide that served as a moat between the forest and the village itself that would be incredibly dangerous to cross, according to Neji. Shikamaru went ahead to scout it out himself so he could devise a strategy, instructing Neji to keep watch on him with the Byakugan, and for everyone else to be on alert for themselves and Neji.

"How long until you think he comes back?" Lee whispered to Naruto.

"It won't be long," the blonde answered. "Shikamaru uses shadows really well, so he won't be seen. He already knows what it looks like because Neji told him, but that's not enough to make a strategy."

"How many times have you and Shikamaru worked together?" Tenten asked.

"Enough," Naruto answered with a grin.

"You and he each lost a trusted partner in Uchiha and Akimichi," Neji observed, his eyes still staring forward. "You've been trying to become that for each other."

"Well, it might be something like that," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. He seemed uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"What was it you wanted to ask me about the other day, Naruto-kun?" Tenten asked, remembering Naruto mentioning something early in the mission.

"Huh? Oh, I was just wondering what you knew about the Jounin exam," the blonde said. "I know we're not supposed to know what it is, but how much are we allowed to know? I never had any parents or anyone to tell me anything, so I have no idea."

Tenten considered this for a moment. Her first instinct was to start off by offering her sympathies for having no parents, but she figured he was tired of people talking about that. But what did she know about the jounin exams?

"Well, let's see," she started. "I know it's a secret process that only jounin level ninja know about, and that once you pass it you're not allowed to talk about it. You'd think that people who've failed it would know, but I've never heard of anyone who failed."

"Well that's good, isn't it?" Naruto asked cheerily. "That must mean it's easy to pass."

"I don't think so," Tenten shook her head. "Jounin are the elite. If it was that easy, they wouldn't be as good as they are."

Naruto was about to respond when Lee gulped audibly.

"Maybe…everyone who has failed it has died," he said. The grin dropped off Naruto's face, but was back in a few seconds.

"Heh. Even if that's true, it doesn't scare me. I'll take it and pass it no problem!" He punched his fist to his chest for emphasis.

"Except you still don't know what it is," Tenten thought, and she sweatdropped.

"That's enough, he's coming back," Neji interrupted. He deactivated his Byakugan and a few moments later, Shikamaru reappeared. When he did, it looked like he was coming out of the tree trunk onto the limb next to them.

"The clearing is covered with snow, and there's no way to determine how deep it is," he told them. "It's obviously done that way on purpose. We could approach on top, but that would give us away as shinobi and eliminates the possibility of using disguises."

"What do we do, then?" Lee asked.

"We're going to wait until dark like we originally planned," Shikamaru went on. "After that, we're going to split up and sneak into the village from different locations. It won't be synchronized; enter whenever you get an opportunity. From here on out, we'll treat this as an individual mission, as it will be too dangerous to try to coordinate our movements with each other once inside the village. Infiltrate and gather information as best you see fit, and remember that our primary objective is to determine their relationships or potential relationships with the Leaf and Sound villages."

He paused to make sure everyone understood so far, and then continued. "As I said, this will be treated as an individual mission. However, if by chance you are captured, that story will not hold up, so you are to say only that you are a scout for your team and that they are awaiting your report to enter the village. Don't give them this information right away, but make sure you tell them eventually. You are not to hold out and tell them nothing. Understood?" They all nodded again. "Good. This will throw them off our trail long enough to exit the village and work out a way to rescue the one who was captured and escape before they catch all of us by surprise. Also, it's slightly less incriminating against the Leaf Village. We'll meet back in this exact spot after ten days, and determine our next move."

"Roger," said Lee, giving a salute. "What should we do until nightfall?"

"Unless anyone has anything else they want to say, we'll split up now. If we're together in a big group, they stand a better chance of discovering us," Shikamaru answered. No one said anything, so he gave the signal to move out.

"See you in ten days!" Naruto declared, and with a puff of smoke he was gone.

"Right. If anyone encounters each other in the village, we don't know each other," Shikamaru said, and he vanished into the shadows.

"Good luck, Tenten! Neji!" Lee waved goodbye, and all they saw was a green streak as he leapt away.

"Take care of yourself," Neji said to her as he prepared to leave as well.

"You too."

The Hyuuga vanished in much the same manner Naruto had, and then Tenten vanished herself.

- - - -

Lee watched the village wall closely as the twilight began to fade. It wasn't as high as the wall in Konohagakure, but would surely be coated with ice, making it much more difficult to scale. Lee grinned. That would be no problem for him.

He had found a spot that was equidistant from two guard posts, and they only patrolled it once every ten minutes or so. It was a flagrant lack of security, so he was on guard for a trap, but it seemed to be the best opening.

He had changed into "civilian attire," since he was unable to perform a proper bunshin no jutsu, and concealed his "Azure Beast" bodysuit with the rest of his ninja equipment in one of the many pockets that a real civilian jacket wouldn't have. He wore long pants, snow boots, a sweater and a heavy jacket, all with secret compartments to conceal weapons and other things in. In short, he looked exactly like one would expect a villager from a snow-covered village to look.

As the last remnants of light finally faded from the horizon, Lee readied himself for his approach. He would wait until the guard made his patrol, and as soon as he began the return to his post, Lee would dash toward the wall. His disguise also had the benefit of concealing him, as it was mostly black, midnight blue, and other dark colors.

"I have learned well, Gai-sensei," he whispered softly. "The skills you made me learn will make it easy to enter this village undetected."

The guard made his turn, and a few seconds later, Lee dashed out from the cover of the trees. He skirted across the surface of the snow with ease, as his chakura control was just proficient enough to keep him from falling through the surface. He was careful to leave no footprints.

Halfway to the wall, he reached behind his back into one of his jacket's secret pockets and pulled out his climbing claws. In the days long passed before chakura control had become so refined, shinobi used small rings worn around the hand with curved claws on the palm to climb walls. Since he was unable to utilize his chakura like most modern shinobi, Lee had mastered the use of all such ancient tools. In this case, it would actually work to his advantage, since any ice on the walls would pose no problems for his iron claws, whereas adhering with chakura would be quite difficult. He possessed similar tools for his feet, but there would be no time to attach them and his upper body strength was more than sufficient.

Upon reaching the wall, he immediately sank his claws in and began climbing. Upon reaching the top, he waited and listened to make sure no one was present, and then vaulted himself over, landing nimbly and silently on the ground inside the village. Infiltration complete.

- - - -

Naruto looked around upon landing inside the village walls. The first thing to do was change his disguise. Right now he appeared to be a tall, lanky man garbed all in black. He'd given his disguise a hitae-ate with a music note on it so as to incriminate Orochimaru's village if anyone had seen him.

He found a back alley where it would be easy for a shinobi to hide and made his way toward it. All senses on alert, Naruto scanned they alley before changing his disguise. He would change it two more times in the next twenty-four hours before coming to one he would keep for the duration of his time here, and right now it was time to get out of the alley. If anyone had been watching the alley, they would have seen a strange ninja go in, and an elderly beggar emerge five minutes later. It would be suspicious, except for the fact that the alley was open on both ends. Naruto chuckled to himself. To think Iruka-sensei had once told him he'd be horrible at infiltration.

- - - -

The wheels in Shikamaru's head were whirring madly as he cased the village. He'd been doing it for the past two days, trying to discern the overall mood of the place. For the most part, it seemed very peaceful (as peaceful as a shinobi village ever got), and there was no overhanging sense of hostility such as he'd felt upon visiting other ninja villages such as Amagakure and even Sunagakure. There were no signs that a war was on, or that anyone was planning one. On the whole, the village seemed peacefully alert in a way that reminded him of home before Orochimaru's attack three years previously - only much colder.

He had managed to observe some young students training, but as yet hadn't been able to see any genin teams in operation. He was apprehensive about trying, as someone might discover him and blow his cover. He'd have to save that until the tenth day, when the risk would be much lower.

He was about to move on yet again when an excited cry from across the street caught his attention. It was a young woman's voice, and it came from the ramen stand straight across and to his left. Immediately, Shikamaru's eye twitched.

"This is great!" the young girl was exclaiming. "I haven't had ramen this good in a long time!" The girl had long, blonde pigtails, and was wearing a bright orange coat and snow pants. Shikamaru sweatdropped and slowly started walking over to the ramen stand. Making contact with a teammate was risky, but he had to make sure Naruto was doing his job. It was a calculated risk.

"You must really like it," the chef was saying. "This is the second day in a row you've come back."

"Figures," Shikamaru thought as he approached. "The first thing he'd look for upon coming into town is a ramen stand."

"Yeah, it's really good," Naruto said. "My family is made up of traveling merchants and I don't ever get to stay in one place for very long. I'm lucky I found such a great place so early this time." He threw in a grin and a giggle, and Shikamaru had to suppress a gag.

"One bowl of shrimp ramen," he called out his order as he sat down next to his teammate at the stand. The chef turned to make his order and Shikamaru turned to get a better look at the `girl' sitting next to him. She was happily slurping her ramen, seemingly not a care in the world.

"At least he had the sense to hide those birthmarks of his," the Nara noted at the visible lack of Naruto's familiar whisker marks. "And he hasn't worn orange for over a year, so that's not so bad. He'd better not be wasting time, though."

"Here you go," the chef said, handing him his order.

"Thanks." He broke his chopsticks and began eating, silently observing the conversation that had resumed next to him.

"So your family travels a lot, huh?" the chef asked.

"Uh-huh," Naruto answered. "We get to see a lot of neat stuff. This is only the second ninja village I've been to, though. And the other one was when I was really small, so I don't really remember it. It's neat. A lot more normal than I thought it would be." He smiled at the chef, and even Shikamaru himself was struck with what a cute disguise Naruto had chosen.

"He's making a friend," Shikamaru realized. "Even if he did nothing but return here every day for the rest of the mission, he'll probably learn more than any of us." Shikamaru hid his smirk by slurping another load of noodles. "This guy. He's pretty shrewd after all."

"It's not what you'd expect, is it?" the chef said. "Of course, most of the things you'd associate with a ninja village happen away from public eyes anyway."

"I'm kinda glad," Naruto said. "When my dad told me we were going to a ninja village, I was a little scared. I've heard some creepy stories about ninja."

The chef smiled kindly. "You won't have to worry about that here," he said. Shikamaru's ears perked and he listened more closely. Naruto worked fast. "This village is unlike most other ninja villages you'll find. We have strong bonds here, and work hard to protect the people who are important to us. Even those of us who aren't ninja share in this."

If any statement could have struck home, that was it. Just hearing those words did something to Shikamaru that he couldn't really describe. It was like hearing the old geezer Sandaime talking again or something. He was sure it had an even greater effect on Naruto, but the blonde didn't show it.

"That's nice," the false girl in question said, smiling brightly once again. "My dad would love to hear that. He's always told me that it's important to protect the people close to you."

"Your dad sounds like a decent guy," the chef said.

"Uh-huh," Naruto nodded. "I'll have to bring him by tomorrow so you can meet him."

"That'd be nice," the chef said. "Are you finished, then?"

"Well, I am still kinda hungry, but my dad would be angry with me if I spent any more money today."

"Well how about another bowl on the house?" the man offered. Naruto's face lit up, and Shikamaru was certain it wasn't from playing the part of a cute young girl.

"Really? Wow, thanks!"

"Not at all," the man chuckled. "You're a nice young girl, and it's not often I get to have such a great conversation with my customers." He slid another hot bowl towards Naruto, who immediately began wolfing it down. The chef chuckled again. "Besides, you've got a big appetite there. I need to spoil you now so you keep coming back." He grinned and Naruto returned the gesture, finishing off his fourth and final bowl.

"See you tomorrow, then!" the blonde waved cheerfully as she ran off. While she was doing this, her other hand discreetly tossed something into Shikamaru's lap. It caught him off-guard, but he made no show that he noticed it. Instead, he slowly finished off his ramen, thanked and paid the chef, and walked off. When he was down the street a ways, he looked to see what it was that the disguised Naruto had thrown into his lap. It was a tiny, curled up piece of paper.

Arching his eyebrow, he unrolled it. Inside were directions to a location with a time - sundown - written above what looked like a hastily drawn spiral.

"So he knew who I was," Shikamaru thought to himself as he memorized the location and then at the slip of paper. "I'll have to be more careful."

At sundown, he went to the place Naruto's note had instructed. It was a small house on the outside of town. He knocked, and the door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman who looked very similar to the girl Naruto had posed as earlier in the morning.

"What's the baba's sister's name?" the woman asked casually. It only took a second for Shikamaru to realize what Naruto was talking about, and then he gave the correct answer.

"She doesn't have one."

"Oh, yeah," the woman said, flashing a grin Shikamaru was all-too familiar with. "Come on in." Shikamaru did so, and waited for his companion to shut the door for further instructions. The irony that he was technically Naruto's superior on this mission did not escape him.

"Come in and sit down," the blonde woman instructed, gesturing to a kitchen table. Shikamaru did as he was requested.

"There are seals all around this room," Naruto said as he entered. "No one can hear anything we say or see anything we do unless they come in." As if to emphasize his point, he dropped his disguise. "I got them from Ero-sennin." Following his companion's lead, Shikamaru too dropped his disguise.

"What's this about?" Shikamaru asked. "You know we're not supposed to make contact until we leave the village. You're disobeying orders."

"You did it first," Naruto countered, sticking out his tongue. Shikamaru's eye twitched.

"How did you know that was me, anyway?"

"Nobody eats that slow except for you," Naruto said. "You were thinking." The blonde placed his hands behind his head and grinned, and Shikamaru had to hand it to him; he was more observant than most people assumed. He smirked.

"All right, so what do you want me for?" he asked.

"Well, I figured you should come back as my dad tomorrow," Naruto explained. "I was going to use kage bunshin - I've got a whole family - but I figured you know more about how dads act than me. Plus, whatever he says, you'll be better at figuring stuff out. You already heard today."

Shikamaru smiled outright this time, but didn't digress. "Did he say anything yesterday?"

"No, not really. Just getting to know him and stuff."

"It looks like you did a good job after all," Shikamaru chuckled under his breath.

"Was there every any doubt that I would?" Naruto exclaimed in his usual cocky manner. All Shikamaru could do was laugh.

"What time should we go back tomorrow?" the blonde asked after a few seconds had passed.

"Whatever time you've been going," Shikamaru replied.

"Okay. Make yourself look like this." Naruto transformed himself in a tall, broad-shouldered man with much tamer hair than Naruto himself, but still the same bright yellow color down to around his ears. He wore a long coat and big boots, and what looked like worn pants and an old shirt. Shikamaru transformed himself to match, and Naruto nodded his approval.

"All right then," the Nara stated. "I'll leave the way I came, and then sneak back in later tonight when it's dark, and we can leave together tomorrow." He changed back into the disguise he'd arrived in, and Naruto reverted to the guise of the middle-aged woman. They walked to the door, and Naruto waved him off politely as he walked away in the twilight.

- - - -

The next day, Naruto and Shikamaru set out for the ramen stand a little before noon. Naruto was in his young girl disguise from the day before, and Shikamaru had disguised himself in the form Naruto had shown him the previous night. When they arrived, Naruto greeted the chef cheerfully.

"Ohayou!"

"Oh, hello again," the man smiled back at Naruto. Then his eyes shifted to Shikamaru. "Is this your father, then?"

"Yup!" It was almost disturbing how well Naruto could play this part.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the man said politely.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, as well," Shikamaru responded. It was troublesome, but he had to behave in a certain manner so as to make it believable that he was related to the girl next to him. "My daughter tells me this is some of the best ramen she's ever tasted, and that the service was very friendly." He smiled the way he'd seen his father smile many times to other adults back when he'd been just a small child.

"Did she now?" The man seemed pleased. "Well, it's nice to have a customer that you can talk to. Most folks just come, eat and leave."

"She likes to make friends," Shikamaru said. "We're on the road a lot, so she's become rather adept at making friends quickly."

"Yes, she mentioned that your family traveled. How often do you generally stay in one place?" The man handed Naruto a bowl of ramen (without even asking what kind she wanted, Shikamaru noticed) during the conversation, and the blonde was already busy inhaling it. Since Naruto hadn't given him any details on the family he'd made up, he had to make up something while keeping it somewhat vague so as to avoid potential contradictions.

"It varies," he said. "If business is good, we can stay in one place for a long time, but if not, we can move on very quickly."

The chef nodded in understanding. "It was that way for me when I started out. I only had a small cart and I couldn't compete with other venders. I was lucky to have come upon this village. There was no real competition here and I was able to set up a permanent stand and live here."

"It sure has grown then, if there was no competition when you arrived," Shikamaru said, looking around and observing the bustling village around him. It was almost as busy as Konohagakure.

"Oh, indeed," the man said. "It has become quite a prosperous town. And our ninja are growing in number and strength."

"Is that so?" Shikamaru asked, accepting the bowl the man offered him when Naruto waved it off (he hadn't finished his second one yet).

"Yes. In fact, you folks have come at a great time. Arima-sama's planning a big celebration for his coronation. I hear they're trying to get ninja from all the most powerful countries to come. It'll be a great festival."

Now this was interesting. If they were planning on inviting ninja from all the strongest countries, then that meant Konoha should have received an invitation as well, and as far as he knew, they had not. Also, that meant Kumogakure and Iwagakure would be asked to send representatives as well, and neither of them were exactly on good terms with Konohagakure.

"A festival?" Naruto asked. "Sounds like fun!"

"It will be," the chef said, smiling at the blonde. "And our village will be recognized for its strength throughout the world."

"We'll have to stay and see it," Shikamaru said, putting on a pleasant smile.

- - - -

"Well that was interesting," Naruto said later once they'd returned to the confines of his sealed room.

"Aa. We'll definitely have to find out more about this festival and what they're planning on doing. This `Arima-sama' must be their village's leader."

"What do you think they're going to do with shinobi from all the strongest countries?" Naruto asked.

"There are a lot of possibilities, and some of them aren't good for us. Given what we heard yesterday though, those are less likely." He paused to think for a moment while Naruto nodded along with him. "Keep going back until it's time to meet the others, and we'll see what they've uncovered. I'm going to go back to scouting the rest of the village. Don't risk trying to contact me again; if you need family members for something, use kage bunshin."

"Right."

"I'll be going now. See you in seven days." He slipped out of the house through the shadows, making sure to disguise himself before he did, just in case.

- - - -

Seven days came and went, and the time had come for their team to meet back in the trees outside the village. All of them had arrived except for Lee, and Tenten was shaking her head.

"It's not right that he's late," she said.

"She's right," Neji said. "Lee has only been late for a rendezvous once, and that was in our first chuunin exam back in the forest of death."

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. He knew what they were referring to.

"You don't think Fuzzy Eyebrows has been caught, do you?" Naruto asked.

"It's possible," Shikamaru conceded, "but it's too early to say. More likely he was delayed leaving the village. He can't disguise himself as effectively as the rest of us can, so he'd have to be extra careful and wait for an opportune moment."

"You're probably right," Neji agreed. "I'll see if I can see him." He activated his Byakugan, and it was a few seconds before he said anything again. "Yes, I see him. He's just left the village and he's on his way." Naruto and Tenten each let out a sigh of relief. A minute or so later, Lee joined them in the tree.

"Before anyone gives a report, Naruto and I have something we've discovered that we need to tell the rest of you," Shikamaru said. The others looked a bit shocked, but waited for them to explain. And so Naruto and Shikamaru explained what they had learned from the man at the ramen stand, and Naruto added something he'd learned later on: that invitations were being sent (they hadn't yet been sent) to only the villages of Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Sunagakure, Kumogakure and Konohagakure."

"Those are the villages where the leader is referred to as a Kage," Neji observed.

"Do you think they're trying to gather all the kage together?" Tenten asked.

"That's definitely a possibility," Shikamaru said, "And a likely one, at this point. From my explorations of the village, it looks like they're preparing for some big event. It's more preparation than I've ever seen for a simple festival."

"But wait, why would a ramen chef know all this?" Tenten asked.

"Given the nature of the information, and the way Shikamaru described the people of the village, it's most likely something they've been planning for some time. I noticed a definite air of excitement among the people I encountered. It's not surprising that even the civilians would know about it."

"That must mean it's happening soon," Tenten said.

"Yes, but `soon' could mean anything from `next week' to `a month and a half from now,'" Shikamaru noted. "We really don't know. All we do know is that the invitations haven't been sent yet, or if they have, word of it hasn't reached the gossip chain yet."

"Given the travel times for delivering the invitations, the possibility of sending a response first, and then the actual travel time, it won't be happening for at least another two weeks," Neji said.

"Right," Shikamaru agreed. "So in the mean time, I want to know what everyone else discovered."

"Their missions seem to be focused on the mundane, for the most part," Tenten began. "Only about ten percent seem to be concerned with matters of the village itself, as compared to sixty-five percent back in Konoha. So they don't seem to be at war or preparing for war with anybody."

"That's good news," Shikamaru said, not wasting the effort asking her how she obtained that information. If it came to it, he could always ask her in private later. "It also means they're making more money than us at the moment, but that's not really relevant to our mission."

"Their academy training seems nothing out of the ordinary," Neji said. "The three genin that our comrades encountered in the chuunin exam appear to have been exceptional students, rather than the norm. However, the number of poor students was particularly low. I would estimate that ninety-five percent of their cadets would be able to graduate from the academy in Konoha."

"So they have tougher grading policies. That explains part of it," Shikamaru said. "Anything else?"

"Yes. Two younger siblings of the shinobi that Haruno Sakura fought are enrolled in the academy, and both appear to be above average students." Naruto's face took on an odd expression, but Shikamaru didn't have time to deal with that. It was Lee's turn to report.

"The ninja Sakura-san battled with is named Sabu Shiro. He is the seventh of nine children and fourth of five sons in a very prominent clan in the village. They have no known bloodline ability, but they have been known to produce many exceptional shinobi, and more than one of their ancestors has possessed the ability to learn jutsu of the hyuton type. Sabu's teammates are called Toukanda Teiko and Yukimora Aomaru. Both are also from prominent clans in the village, but neither of them have any siblings. The three of them train with their sensei, Takashi Seta, every day, and they haven't received a mission since we've arrived."

"No missions?" Shikamaru questioned. "They were all promoted to chuunin, right?"

"Hai. They were all given the rank of chuunin, but they have not had any missions since we've arrived."

"You said that already," Shikamaru grumbled in his head. Out loud, he said, "That's strange. With their skill level, you would think that they would be sent out more."

"Perhaps they are being groomed for a special purpose, as with the three sand shinobi we encountered during the invasion three years ago," Neji suggested.

"That definitely can't be discounted as a possibility," Shikamaru said, "But there's still something not quite right about all this."

"What should we do, then?" Neji asked.

Shikamaru assumed his strategy position and all remained silent for a few moments. When he came out of it, he looked at them all and said, "We'll go back to the village for a week. Lee, I want you to keep watching those three; there's something going on with them."

"Roger."

"Naruto, stay at the ramen stand. He's been our best source of information by far, and we might learn the time frame we're dealing with for this festival."

"Right!"

"Tenten and Neji, I want you two to watch the jounin of the village - as many as you can. We need to know their skill level as well as the types of missions they're receiving."

"Understood," said Neji. Tenten nodded.

"Since you'll be watching jounin, there'll be a high risk. Be careful. I'll be trying to find out as much about this Arima person as I can. We meet back here in seven days." Four shinobi nodded in unison and then vanished from his view. Shikamaru sighed deeply and took a moment before heading back to the village himself. This mission was getting more and more troublesome by the day.

- - - -

A week passed, and Shikamaru was preparing to leave the village again to meet up with his team. He hadn't found out much about the ninja known as Arima that he hadn't already known: the best ninja in the village at only 27 years old, he was their undisputed leader. The one thing Shikamaru did learn was that Arima seemed to generally care for the people of his village. That alone garnered him respect in the young Nara's eyes.

Shikamaru waited for a small break in the guard and silently stole from the village. This time, they would not be returning. They'd been in potential enemy territory for almost three weeks, and could not risk staying any longer. Discovery not only risked his team's safety, but a potentially friendly relationship with this village. That had to be avoided at all costs; Konoha could not afford another enemy at this time.

Reflecting on these thoughts as he dashed across the snow to the safe cover of the trees, he was suddenly stopped as his feet became frozen in place - the snow around them becoming solid ice and locking them still.

"Kuso," he grumbled under his breath. "I've been discovered." He removed his hitae-ate from his arm right away and hid it. Already he had begun taking stock of his surroundings, a strategy forming in his mind. The tree line was less than ten feet away. If he could make it into the trees, he'd stand a chance.

As he was scanning his surroundings, a mound of snow began to rise up in front of him. The image reminded him of Gaara rising from the sand many years ago during his fight with Rock Lee, and the ninja underneath it all was without a doubt the ninja that Haruno Sakura had fought only weeks before - Sabu Shiro.

"Not quite as careful with leaving as you are with entering, are you?" Shiro taunted. He was now standing on the snow a mere three feet in front of Shikamaru, who was still frozen in place. In the light of the nearly-full moon, he could see that the snow nin's face was still covered with a blue cloth mask, but the shape of his eyes indicated that he was smirking in a rather cocky manner.

"Annoying brat," Shikamaru thought. "Oi, I have no business with you," he said calmly. "Leave now if you don't want to get hurt."

The younger ninja laughed indignantly. "No business with me? I could have sworn you were the one sneaking around in my village. I'd say I have some business with you." He drew a kunai and spun it on his finger before grasping it firmly in his right hand. "Spies will be terminated on sight!" He yelled, charging at Shikamaru.

"Konoha senpuu!" Came a thunderous voice, and Shiro was sent sprawling across the snow. Rock Lee now stood in front of Shikamaru in his trademark fighting stance, right hand held out.

"Sorry I'm late, Shikamaru-kun," Lee said. "I was tailing them out of the village, but had to stay back so they wouldn't notice me."

"It's fine," Shikamaru said. "I caught the second one, so now there's only one left. There'll probably be two of him, so be careful."

"Dammit!" A shout came from behind them - an annoyed, female shout - and revealed the form of Toukanda Teiko, half emerged from the snow, with a thin shadow trailing across the ground from her to Shikamaru's still-frozen feet.

"How did you know I was here?" Teiko demanded. She couldn't hide the tiny shake of fear in her voice.

"As soon as I saw your teammate, I knew it was you who froze my feet to the ground," Shikamaru explained. "The ice holding my feet wasn't formed from the snow, it was flash-frozen from the air. You have a bloodline ability that allows you to freeze surrounding water vapor. It was obvious."

"I told you someone was following us!" Shiro shouted at his teammate, returning to his feet and pointing at Lee."

"But you still got caught off-guard!" Teiko shouted back.

"Are they really chuunin?" Shikamaru sweatdropped.

"It doesn't' matter," Shiro said calming down again. "I can take both of them." He made a few seals, and then performed another technique Shikamaru had never seen. "Koori bunshin no jutsu!" A clone - presumably made of ice, appeared next to the young snow ninja. Then the real one charged at Lee while the clone attacked Shikamaru.

Shikamaru sweatdropped again. "He's like Naruto. He always just charges right at the enemy without thinking." He drew a kunai, and Teiko merely mimed doing the same, as her kunai pouch was on her other side. Before he had to use it though, three of kunai flew downward from behind him along with five shuriken, and the clone had to move to evade them. It managed to block two of the kunai, but the remainder of the projectiles hit it dead-on, and it cried out in pain for a moment before it shattered to pieces. A second later, Shikamaru heard Tenten land nimbly on the snow behind him as Lee sent the real Shiro tumbling across the surface again.

"You should really know the entire situation you're in before you charge blindly at your opponent," Tenten said. Shiro made some kind of growling noise and slowly got to his feet.

"How many of you spies are there?" Shiro demanded.

Shikamaru chuckled. "That's the sort of thing you're supposed to find out before you attack," he said. "We know there's three of you, even if your other teammate hasn't appeared yet, but you don't know anything about us. Challenging experienced ninja on your own isn't the smartest thing for kids like you to do." He didn't want to fight, because even with Lee's exclamation of his favorite technique, there was a chance these snow ninja hadn't yet figured out where they'd come from. Lee was still in his disguise, so his hitae-ate was not visible, and Shikamaru made a quick check to make sure Tenten had thought to hide hers as well. She had.

"What are you doing in out village, anyway?" Teiko spat, still denied voluntary movement. "And where are you from?"

"Neither of those things are your business," Shikamaru said simply. These kids just loved to give information away. "If you needed to know, you'd know." By now he was quite sure that Neji had seen what was going on, and was waiting to appear when he was needed. Likely, he'd found Naruto as well, and the latter was waiting also. As soon as the third enemy appeared, they could make their move and escape.

"Oi, Shikamaru!" Tenten called as she threw two kunai at his feet, freeing him from the ice that bound him.

"Aa. Thanks." He stepped out and wiggled his feet around, trying to get some warm blood flowing to them again.

"You bastards," Shiro growled.

"We really do have no business with you, and we'd rather not hurt you," Shikamaru said again, "so just go home."

"I don't think so," came a voice from behind him. He turned his head to see a young shinobi with long brown hair and piercing blue eyes pop up from under the snow behind him. In his peripheral vision, he saw an identical person pop up behind Lee. Before he could react further, he was in a full nelson hold.

"I don't know how you know about my abilities or those of my teammates, or what you were doing in our village," Aomaru's cold voice rang in his ear, "but it doesn't matter. In a few seconds you'll be dead." He began applying pressure to Shikamaru's neck, and just as the Nara was about to counterattack, he felt his assailant being knocked away from him."

"Looks like I waited just long enough," Naruto's cocky voice rang out. "I knew you'd show yourself sooner or later."

"Heh. Neji probably told him to wait," Shikamaru thought, even as he gratefully rubbed the back of his neck. Six feet behind him, a little to his left, Toukanda Teiko rubbed the back of her neck as well.

"You're just in time, Naruto-kun," Lee smiled as he threw Aomaru off of his back. Evidently, the young taijutsu specialist hadn't needed the help of the Naruto clone that was standing next to him.

"What should we do with them?" Naruto asked, pumping his fists and cracking his knuckles.

"Nothing," Shikamaru said. "We're going to leave, and not fight them. It would do us no good to fight ninja from this village."

"So you're aware of our reputation, then?" Shiro asked with an arrogant grin. He showed only token signs of the beating he'd already taken.

"We do, but that has nothing to do with it," Shikamaru answered. "Your village is not our enemy, and unless you try to kill us again, neither are you. I'll say it one last time. Go home."

"Your talk goes nowhere, intruder," Aomaru said coldly. It was the one Lee had thrown off, and he was looking Shikamaru right in the eye. "Kirigan!"

For an instant, Aomaru's eyes became an even more intense shade of blue, and Shikamaru felt as if he'd been stabbed by an ethereal spear. He tried to move to react, but he could not.

"Teiko, whatever jutsu he used on you should be dispelled now," Aomaru said calmly. Sure enough, the young kunoichi stepped out of the snow where Shikamaru had held her with his Kagemane no jutsu.

"I can't move," Shikamaru managed to get out though a mouth that wouldn't open. He had to communicate that to his teammates in case they hadn't figured it out already.

"Oy! What did you do to Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted, pointing an angry finger in Aomaru's direction. The latter simply closed his eyes and laughed in a manner that was very reminiscent of Neji.

"I've cut the flow of chakura in his body," he answered simply. "He is now paralyzed, and will not be able to move at all." Tenten and Lee gasped, and Naruto swore.

"Shiro, Teiko, regroup," Aomaru called. Immediately the two of them and the other Aomaru formed around the one that had frozen Shikamaru.

"Now, we'll make you pay for infiltrating the snow village," the two Aomarus said in unison. "You will regret taking us lightly." Teiko dashed off toward Tenten, who had to leap back in order to keep some distance. Shiro made another ice clone and headed towards Naruto, who had both himself and his clone together now. Aomaru (both of him) went for Lee.

- - - -

"This is the guy that beat Sakura-chan," Naruto thought as Shiro and his clone rushed forward. "I'll get revenge for her now!" He prepared himself to defend, and blocked the first hit that came in from the Shiro on the right.

"Got you," Shiro said. He took the hand he'd used to punch and grabbed the arm Naruto blocked with. Within seconds, Naruto was frozen solid. "My koori bunshin is almost unbeatable in melee combat," he boasted. He kicked the frozen Naruto in the head, and the blonde disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"So you're the real one then," said the Shiro (obviously the real one) who was fighting the other Naruto. The ice clone came over to help. They'd made their way to only a foot or so from the tree line.

"That's my line," replied Naruto. Immediately afterward, he too vanished in a puff of smoke. In the few seconds that spanned Shiro's bewilderment, two more Narutos jumped down from the trees and landed kicks in their opponent's faces. For the third time, Sabu Shiro was sent sprawling across the snow. This time, however, he did not get back up, and in fact started to sink below the surface.

"Always save your trump card for last, and don't get too cocky if you don't know what your opponent can do, baaaaka," Naruto taunted. Then he looked to see which of his comrades needed the most help.

- - - -

The moment Tenten leapt back, she threw two handfuls of senbon at her attacker, just to hold her off. However, the young girl with the glacier blue hair whom Lee had said was called Toukanda Teiko formed shields of ice out of seemingly nowhere, and blocked them all. Then Tenten remembered hearing Shikamaru say something about this girl having the ability to control and freeze surrounding water vapor.

"It looks like projectiles aren't going to work, then," she realized as she landed back on the snow. As soon as she did, she had to dodge the two ice shields that had been thrown at her, and after she'd done that, the girl was right on top of her and she was locked in a taijutsu match.

"If you think you can beat me with this level of skill, you're mistaken," Teiko declared coldly. She was an incredibly skilled fighter, but not for nothing did Tenten have Konoha's greatest taijutsu specialist for a sensei. While by no means a match for this girl, she was at least able to hold her own until one of the others could help, or Neji made an appearance.

"You're obviously the weak link of your team," Teiko stated. This irritated Tenten somewhat, as she was very proud of and confident in her skills. She blocked an attack but was caught by a strong kick in the stomach, and managed to jump back a good distance before a finishing blow came. She immediately launched six shuriken at her opponent, and went into a short series of seals before calling out "Shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu!" It was a skill that she has specifically petitioned Tsunade-sama to be allowed to learn.

"Koori ni naru no jutsu!" the girl yelled, and a wall of snow rose in front of her and hardened into ice to block the attack. Tenten used the opportunity to create four bunshin clones of herself, and spread them out. After a few seconds, Teiko leapt over her little ice wall with several ice spikes in her hands. She let them fly at Tenten and all of her clones, but each clone dodged perfectly and Tenten didn't have to give away which one of her was real. Then she and all her clones threw a host of kunai at her opponent, who now had no idea which ones to try to counter. She'd just landed on the ground, so there was no time to repeat her previous technique, and there was no way she would be able to form a big enough shield from water vapor in time.

What she did was crouch down into a ball with her hands held up, and attempt to form what looked like a dome around her with ice. Her vapor freezing abilities were, as Tenten predicted, not fast enough, and the two real kunai shattered the shield and impaled her right arm just above the elbow. She screamed out in pain, but immediately pulled the kunai out and made to throw them back at what she now obviously knew was the real Tenten.

The Konoha chuunin smirked and was already preparing a counter when a cord with a small weight on the end of it wrapped itself around the young snow nin's neck from behind. Tenten looked and followed the cord back to Naruto's hand, who was standing about fifteen feet behind his new captive.

"Don't forget about me!" he yelled, and he pulled on the cord, yanking the girl from where she stood, and throwing her over to where it looked like one of her teammates was already lying unconscious.

"I learned that technique from a suna nin named Sasori," Naruto said to Tenten, smiling proudly. "It's supposed to be a kunai and not just a weight, but Shikamaru says we shouldn't kill them." Tenten was half annoyed at him for interfering with her fight, and half grateful to him for helping her out, even if she wasn't sure she needed it. After all, she'd been waiting for help at first, right?

"We should go help Lee and Shikamaru-kun," she said. Naruto nodded, and they dashed off toward their friends.

- - - -

Lee was ready for a strong opponent, but hadn't been expecting this much trouble. This Aomaru person he was fighting was not only highly skilled in taijutsu, he was able to coordinate his attacks to such a degree that he might has well have been two separate people with a telepathic connection. Even Naruto-kun wasn't this effective with his clone technique.

He countered another attack from the front, and was about to shift his defense to the incoming attack on his right when he felt a strong gust of wind and his attacker was thrown off course. It was about time.

"Thanks for the help, Neji," he said, taking up his fighting stance once again while standing back to back with his long-time teammate.

"You look like you're having some trouble, Lee," Neji said conversationally. Despite their rivalry, which still survived, the two had grown close and had great respect for each other's abilities. "Be careful, neither of these two is a clone. They're both real people."

"Nani?" Lee said. "How can that be? I followed this team for two weeks and Yukimora Aomaru doesn't have any siblings, let alone a twin!"

"So you were spying on us then," Aomaru smirked. "And no, I don't have a twin. This is a family technique based on my bloodline ability to rapidly produce new cells. It's a living human clone."

Lee could sense that even Neji was shocked with that. But something didn't make sense…

"That technique you used on Shikamaru-kun…that was a bloodline ability too, wasn't it?"

If possible, Aomaru's smirk grew even bigger. "Yes, it was. My father is of the Yukimora clan, who can reproduce cells almost instantly. My mother was the last of the Inoue clan, and the Kirigan was her family's bloodline ability. I have inherited them both."

"Two separate bloodline abilities…" Neji whispered in amazement.

"Now, I'll finish you intruders off with another of my family's techniques." Aomaru - both of him - brought his hands together in front of his body before performing a sequence of seals and calling out "Yukimora-ryu: Shiyoken no jutsu!" As soon as he said it, two new arms sprang out from his shoulder blades on his back, giving him for arms each per body. Lee was mildly shocked, but Neji just chuckled.

"If that's your trump card, you'll need at least six and probably more to defeat me," the Hyuuga said calmly. Aomaru seemed to accept the challenge and attacked both of them at once. Neither Neji nor Lee seemed to have any difficulty defending against four arms at once, and this only seemed to irritate their foe further.

"Lee! The trees!" Neji shouted.

"Hai!" The Azure Beast leapt up into the trees, and the Aomaru he was fighting made to follow him, but Neji called him back.

"You think you can take both of me at once?" They said. "Go ahead and try. I'll beat you quickly and catch your teammate before he can escape like you planned."

"Lee is not escaping," Neji said as he lowered his stance. "It is just that you are both within the field of my hakke."

If Aomaru was confused, he didn't have time to show it. Neji launched his attack, hitting both of them at once since they were so close together.

"2 strikes! 4 strikes! 8 strikes! 16 strikes! 32 strikes! 64 strikes!" The final blow put Aomaru down for good, with one of him landing on top of the other.

"Looks like you don't need any help after all," came Tenten's voice from behind him. A moment later Lee dropped down from his perch and clapped him on the shoulder.

"We need to help Shikamaru now," Neji reminded them.

"So nice of you to remember," came a muffled response from where Shikamaru still stood paralyzed.

"The flow of chakura has been stopped by cutting it off in your neck," Neji explained, his Byakugan activated. "If you fall unconscious it should return to normal."

"Pfsh. How troublesome. A technique that can only be countered by falling asleep. Well, go ahead then."

Neji tapped a pressure point on Shikamaru's neck and the Nara instantly fell forward into the snow, unconscious. Naruto then picked him up and shook him awake.

"Ugh," Shikamaru grumbled as he regained consciousness. "How troublesome."

"The enemy ninja have all been neutralized," Neji said. "We should withdraw."

"Not yet, you won't!" Yelled an angry female voice. They looked to see an injured but irate Toukanda Teiko holding three kunai in her good arm, ready to throw them. She had managed to revive Sabu Shiro as well, though the latter could barely stand.

"This is ridiculous," Shikamaru groaned. He pulled out a smoke bomb, though only his own team could see it. "Tenten, cover our escape."

"Right." She performed shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu as a means of distracting the enemy, but just as Shikamaru was about to throw the smoke bomb, all the shuriken were deflected by various projectiles thrown from above and to the right. They looked up and saw standing on a tree limb a young man of about their age with long black hair, wearing a white robe that when down to his shoes. It split up each side to his waist to reveal thick blue pants, and had an emblem of a red diamond over a smaller blue circle on the chest. The sleeves were enormous, and he held them together in front of him like a monk. He sneered at them.

"You shouldn't have hurt my cousin," he said coolly. "Now I'll have to kill all of you."

"Musuka!" Shiro shouted excitedly, despite his injuries. The one called Musuka jumped down from his tree, flipping over as he did so, without once bending a single joint in his body that they could see. His hands and sleeves did not move.

"Musuka-senpai!" Teiko exclaimed. It was the first time they'd heard her sound anything like a "normal" girl.

"Who's this baggy guy?" Naruto chuffed.

"Musuka is the best chuunin in our village. He'll kill all of you," Shiro said matter-of-factly.

"Whatever," Naruto said. "I'll hold him off, and you guys go. Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Three clones appeared and rushed Musuka, who did not flinch or even move in the slightest. The real Naruto made to leave with the rest of them.

"Let's go, then," Shikamaru said. They made to leave for the trees, but ended up falling face first in the snow as they felt chains with weights on the end of them similar to Naruto's earlier technique wrap around their ankles. Shikamaru looked back just in time to see Musuka dispatch the last of Naruto's clones with a knife protruding form the toe of his boot, and saw also that all five chains trailed back to Musuka's left arm, which was now extended toward them, and up his cavernous sleeve.

"Don't think you can escape now," Musuka said in his cool, confident voice. "I told you I'd have to kill you for what you did to my cousin and his team."

"Hmph," Shikamaru snorted. It only took a few seconds for Lee to break the chains that held them. When he did, Musuka dropped the ends of them.

"This one appears very skilled," Neji observed.

"I told you, my cousin is the best in the village," Shiro taunted again. He was leaning heavily on Teiko's uninjured side for support.

"This is troublesome," Shikamaru said quietly to the rest of his team. "We're wasting time and endangering our mission and our village by staying here, and we have no idea what this guy is capable of."

"I can find out," Naruto volunteered. Before Shikamaru could tell him not to, Naruto had created five more shadow clones and sent them after their new foe.

Musuka chuckled slightly and then lowered his arms to his sides. Two-foot blades extended from each sleeve, and he then brought them back up to face Naruto. He dispatched two clones before the blonde ninja even had time to react.

"I'll back him up," Tenten said. She leapt in the air and hurled a myriad of projectiles, but as before they were all deflected by weapons thrown from Musuka's sleeves - as he was fighting Naruto, with the blades still extended from them.

"How did he do that?" Tenten marveled.

"Hidden weapons," Neji said. "He is apparently a master at the art of concealed armaments. That is why his robe and its sleeves are so large."

"You figured it out," Teiko said. "Musuka-senpai is the hidden weapons master of Yukigakure, and there's no way any of you can beat him." At that, Musuka finished off the last of Naruto's clones, which only served to incite the hyperactive ninja further.

"We can all together!" He yelled. "Let's go, Fuzzy Eyebrows!"

"Osu!" Naruto and Lee charged Musuka together, and Neji and Shikamaru sweatdropped.

"Why do they always have to make things up as they go?" Shikamaru whined.

As it is, this leaves him distracted and open for your Kagemane no jutsu, does it not?" Neji asked.

"Yeah, but I'll probably catch those two in it as well."

"No great loss." Neji smirked. Shikamaru returned the expression, and then activated his jutsu.

"No you don't!" Shiro yelled. He leapt from Teiko's side and jumped in the path of the shadow, interrupting it before it could capture Musuka.

"Kuso!" Shikamaru grumbled, preparing the technique again. His attention was stolen by a distinctly feminine shriek.

"Aaahh! Musuka-senpai, help!" All eyes were drawn to Teiko, who was now surrounded by three mysterious men in black. She was standing next to the still incapacitated form of Aomaru, whose two clones had fused back into one when they'd landed on each other. Apparently, the female yuki nin had already been cut across the middle by these new appearances.

"Enough playing," came a deep, commanding voice from just inside the trees. It was eerily familiar. "Just take the target and let's go." One of the men grabbed Aomaru's prone form and leapt into the trees just in time to escape from Musuka, who had come to help.

It was then that Shikamaru noticed the hitae-ate that the men were wearing. Naruto noticed it too, because the next thing he heard was "Shikamaru! Oto ninja!" The other two that were there leapt in to the trees after their comrade, and as Musuka made to pursue, an enormous fireball shot out from the trees. Moments after it dissipated, a tall figure emerged, with spiky black hair, a music note on his hitae-ate, and blood red sharingan eyes. Shikamaru and his team froze, and after a moment, the figure spoke, looking directly into Naruto's eyes.

"Thanks for making it so easy…Dobe-kun." The figure then vanished like a ghost back into the blackness of the night forest.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Wow, that was fun to write. The fight with Musuka was originally going to be drawn out longer, but they'd been fighting for long enough and this chapter was getting a bit too big. I was also going to introduce one of Shiro's siblings in this chapter, but decided to hold that until later.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and look forward to the next one, because the excitement is just getting started. I'll introduce a few more characters, and a couple more of Shiro's family members will make a cameo appearance.

And, of course, thanks to my prereader SJR, for making sure everything made sense, and catching those typos that I couldn't see.

Amagakure - Hidden village of the rain

Iwagakure - Hidden village of stones

Kirigakure - Hidden village of the mist

Sunagakure - Hidden village of sand

Kumogakure - Hidden village of the clouds

Koori ni naru no jutsu - Basically, "Becoming ice technique." It's a lame name, but I made this technique up on the spot and just called it the first thing that popped into my head.

Shiyoken no jutsu - Four-armed attack technique. This technique and its name are ripped directly from Dragonball.

Sasori - "Scorpion." Haha. ^_^

As always, if there are any terms I've forgotten, let me know and I'll add them. Thanks for reading.