Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [1]

☾ 55 ☽

"Naruto!" Kiba said. "Hate to tell you this, but I'm going to demonstrate my new Jutsu right here!" Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Me too!" Choji said, stepping up.

"Don't be so hasty," Shikamaru told them. "As soon as preparations have been made to implement my strategy... we'll make direct contact with the target!"

☾

"Kiba," Shikamaru said. "Don't mess up the timing of the Smoke Bombs," Kiba nodded. "Now, then... We'll split up into two teams,"

They all stood up once they had finished deciding what they had wanted to discuss. Tsukiko, Shikamaru and Neji left to get nearer to the bushes where the Sound Four had gathered while Naruto, Choji, and Kiba with Akamaru went off in another direction to wait for the opportunity to attack if things were wrong.

"There are spiders everywhere," Tsukiko muttered under her breath as she followed Shikamaru and Neji. "I wonder if this time of the day is potent for food – all of the webs seem rather freshly-made," The two males with her gave her strange looks. "Sorry, I read books, Usa,"

"It looks like they haven't noticed us yet," Shikamaru whispered to Tsukiko and Neji as they peered at the Sound Four from the bushes. Tsukiko looked around and saw Sasuke nowhere.

"Sasuke isn't with them?" Tsukiko breathed out as she continued to run her eyes all over the place, trying to locate her friend. "Neji, can you use your Byakugan..."

"Yeah," Neji said, slightly surprised that she didn't use her own Byakugan but then activated his own to have a look around. "It appears that he is inside that 'coffin',"

"Is he dead?!" Shikamaru whisper-shouted. Tsukiko shook her head immediately, not accepting that conclusion in any way or form.

Sasuke is not dead.No way.

"The barrel is secured with barriers," Neji answered. "I can't see through it," He glanced at Tsukiko. "I wouldn't think that the guys who wanted Sasuke would kill him that easily,"

"You might be right about that," Shikamaru muttered.

Just then, Tsukiko, Shikamaru and Neji all turned to look back at the Sound Four when one of them suddenly threw a Kunai at them, several paper bombs attached to it, ready to explode within seconds.

"Crystal Style: Prussian Fruit!" Tsukiko shouted. But even her crystals could not contain the large number of paper bombs and it blasted them off.

Tsukiko took the momentum to jump higher and moved her fingers, making Shikamaru and Neji into human puppets and dragging them out along. She landed with Shikamaru and Neji in the clearing, exactly where their enemy had intended them to appear as they all stood up to face the Konoha Three. Wincing from the pain, Tsukiko straightened up and glared at them.

"What's this?" said the one who had thrown the Kunai. "I poked the bush for kicks and out comes not even a snake, just three bugs,"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Shikamaru said immediately. "Wait! We didn't come here to fight. We just came here to negotiate!"

"You want to negotiate, huh?" the first one said. "How about you give us that girl, and we let you all go free?" Tsukiko pursed her lips. "Otsutsuki Tsukiko, aren't you?"

"You thought we wouldn't notice the others?" another male spoke up. He pulled at his hand, bringing out all of the remaining Konoha Seven onto the ground and Kiba immediately threw his Smoke Bomb, "There's no point to that Smoke Bomb. You can't run away from me. It's string that thinner and stronger than wire that you can hardly see. My string is placed all over this place,"