Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [1]

☾ Stone of Gelel - 1 ☽

"Something wrong?" Sakura inquired.

"Don't you see it, Usa?" Tsukiko said quietly, her blue eyes set upon the green fields. "Even though it's already afternoon, you can't sense anyone. Not even a recent trace of someone being here..."

"Now that you mention it..." Sakura realised.

"Is that really so?" Naruto muttered, not quite taking this seriously. Sakura, thoroughly irked at him, reached out and punched him back down to the ground.

Tsukiko shook her head at them but she was more concerned about where they were going to.

☾

"From here on, we'll switch to a reconnaissance pattern," Shikamaru said into his radio transceiver that he shared at the same frequency as Tsukiko, Naruto and Sakura. "Tsukiko and I'll head to the west of the forest, so Sakura and Naruto – you two go the opposite way!"

"Got it!"

"Usa!" Tsukiko said as she changed the course of her travel through the forest to turn west with Shikamaru while Naruto and Sakura headed off to the east. "Let's have a look around, huh?"

"It would be nice if this doesn't become troublesome," Shikamaru muttered with a sigh as the two of them travelled together through the forest. Tsukiko glanced at him.

"Honestly, we should've made teams of Chunin-Genin," Tsukiko commented as she looked around with her senses heightened. "Both of them need supervision,"

"Their direction shouldn't have much other than scouting," Shikamaru replied. "It's our direction that leads straight to the village. Besides, we work better together,"

"There have quite a few boys who have told me that," Tsukiko said teasingly. "But I didn't know you were into this, too, Shika-Kun," Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her.

"I've told you to hold your confectionaries," Shikamaru told her. "I know you're not allowed to use your Dojutsu but I want you to survey with your Byakugan,"

"Anything for you," Tsukiko replied and switched her eyes to Byakugan as they approached the edge of the forest – but she didn't have to do anything to see what was in front of them. "Shikamaru,"

"Is this...?" Shikamaru asked, horrified as he looked down, and Tsukiko nodded grimly in response.

Tsukiko and Shikamaru had come to a stop on the tree branch at the very end of the forest, and they could see down the terraced farming fields and toward the location where the village was supposed to be – but there wasn't any village. Only destruction and debris from some sort of attack.

"Hey," Shikamaru said as he quickly moved to radio Naruto and Sakura, and Tsukiko's eyes widened when he was interrupted by a scream by Sakura. "Hey, what's wrong?!"

"Naruto!" Tsukiko tried to radio her teammates, concern running extremely high. "Sakura! What's going on over there?!"

"There are strange enemies!" Sakura replied, and Tsukiko was relieved to hear her voice. "We're currently engaging in a fight with them!"

"We're on our way!"

"I'll look for them with my eyes," Tsukiko told Shikamaru as the two of them quickly set off together back toward where they had left Naruto and Sakura. She browsed the area. "I can see up to four different enemies, and they seem to be wearing heavy armour. We've got to hurry!"