Chapter shout out!! MiyukiAyame, HyuugaMisuki, P_Singh, RAYEDEER, krysral_uchiha, fell_dark_wolf11, HanakoRistow, KamikazeKaitouIchigo, JordanNovillaChavez, and KarlUngi.

I do not own Naruto. Bad people who think I do. Bad! I love you all, but bad!! (But I seriously doubt if there was anyone out there that thought I did own Naruto.... -_-')

*Not edited by AkiraMori-Sensei yet*

------------

Chapter 54 -

Mission Accomplished?

-----------

"It's nearly dusk... It seems like they've got their hands full," Sakkon said as Tayuya and him raced through the trees. I had long given up trying to fight against my body running after them, moving in sync. After I had tried a few more times, only to find out that even passed out I would still move, I decided to fall back and save my strength for when it was needed.

'Strength? What strength? I can feel myself withering away right now... It's shameful.'

"That doesn't matter, what matters is Orochimaru-sama. We've only one third of the plan, and it's taken us almost a full day now."

Sakkon nodded his head (really it's heads) as he ran, agreeing with her, "Yeah, this is not looking good. Even if all goes well, we're not even sure we can make it."

"That sounds like a fabulous plan to me. If we don't make it that would mean that Sasuke would die, which would mean that the snake bastard wouldn't get his hands on him," I said to myself. I almost hoped that would happen, but I know that it would still be a loss no matter what. If Sasuke dies, or lives and joins Orochimaru, the chances of me living are slim to none, and then the rescue mission would fail. I felt my eye flutter as I tried to keep them open, but it seemed to be like fighting a one uphill battle after another. The exhaustion was pushing me to the brink, and because now that the pain that was keeping me awake was replaced with molasses, my body was begging to shut down. It wasn't like I wouldn't stop running if I rested for a little bit.

A small laugh bubbled its way into my mind when I thought about that, 'rest... Come to think about it, just around three months ago the idea of 'rest' would have terrified me, even more so a few weeks ago, but now I almost crave it all the time when I am not doing something. I wonder, with Suteki possibly gone, will old nightmares came back and visit me?' My mind flashed to the one I had when I had re-entered the academy, about my old teammates dying at my own hand, but now I feared that my new ones and new family would replace them, or even worse, join them. I tried to shake my head to rid my tired mind of the fog that was threatening to pull me in, but I could feel myself losing to it, my eyes slowly shutting again.

With my last bit of strength I looked to the setting sun, wanting to take a good long look of it increase it would be the last time I would see it, at least as a proud free shinobi of the hidden Leaf, before I gave in and let my tired eyes finally close, trying to think of a lone cherry tree.

'Well, no matter. No nightmare could be any worse than right now...'

-----Nala's POV-------

'They're close!!!' I called could as I sniffed the air, realizing that the stench that we were following was much stronger now than before.

"We've got two more enemies, and we've got four. If we play our hands right, we might be able to finish it in the next encounter," Shikamaru explained to all of us.

"Alright!! Let's do this!!" Naruto yelled out, loudly.

'Naruto! Could you be any louder? You know we are still pursuing this freaks!"

"No! It's five vs. two," Kiba added, a little bit insulted.

'Yeah! Count the kitten but forget the dog why don't you!' Akamaru barked out after Kiba spoke, alerting the rest of us of his presence. I growled lowly to what he said.

'You know, I was starting to warm up to you, you tiny flea bag. Let me add that I can carry a person, not have to BE carried,' I said a little smug as Shikamaru apologized to him for letting him out.

'Low blow kitty-cat. Low blow.'

'Do you think I care? I have too much on my mind to be bothered by such TINY things,” I smoothly replied, before placing my attention back to the others. Kiba had just finished saying something about his new technique again. 'How in the hell is everyone coming up with these new attacks? What's wrong with a good old bite to the jaw?'

"Hey!" Naruto called out, "if things get tough, I'll just use my shadow clones, so don't worry!"

"That's good to hear, but strategy comes first, got it?"

'What is our strategy Shikamaru?' I asked him, kinda hoping it wasn't like our last two attempts. Yes, the plan so far has been working or keeping us on their trail, but the part about cutting down their strength was like a double edge sword. Each side had to have two fall back.

"Well, they only have the two left, and even though we don't know where their power lies, one of them has to carry Sasuke's coffin, and the other has to carry Harmony right? That means they have no way but to defend. So if we..."

----- FF-----

'I'm going to enjoy this,' I thought to myself with a cat-smile on my face as I peered down at three people sitting down on a branch, only a few meters in front me. I flexed my claws a little, feeling them beg to be used before I slowly turned around and crawled back over to the others, keeping my small body as low as body so not to disrupt the leaves around me. When I reached the trees trunk I looked back before jumping down, landing on a branch where the others stood. 'Three o'clock. They're look to be either resting, or know we're already here and playing with us. They still are protecting Sasuke's coffin, and Harmony seems to be awake now, even though she looks severely drained. But I wouldn't not consider her for help if we need it, and if she's up to it.'

"Of course she'd help! She probably would get pissed off at us if we beat them to a pulp ourselves and didn't let her get a swing or two in," Kiba said with a small chuckle, "not that we would need her help or anything though."

"Ya! We can take those two on no problem!" Naruto replied, pulling out one of his kunias. I nodded and rubbed my head and body against his legs. Even though the plan Shikamaru thought up was brilliant, I couldn't help but worry. Naruto was Harmony's otouto, and I damn well was going to look after him.

'I hope this all works out,' I told him before looking to Shikamaru and Kiba, 'We all set?' I asked him. Shikamaru looked up in the direction I had told them before.

"Yeah. Let's hope this is not all a drag. Here," He said, handing me a few paper bombs. I gentile grabbed him with the tips of my teeth, not wanting to handle them too though. After I had a good grip on them I turned to look at the pup that was now roughly the same size as me.

'Let's get going then, okay flea bag?' Akamaru growled slightly, muffled by the paper bombs that he too held in his mouth that Kiba had given him.

'I was born ready." He bark/told me before we took off in opposite directions, the other three heading to stand off with the freaks.

The two of us had a simple job, while Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru were distracting the freaks, Akamaru and I placed down a few paper bombs in the area so that they will go off after we make our retreat and set some distance between us. 'Simple, yet effective,' I thought to myself as I set my first of three bombs.

"Taren Ken!!*" A voice yelled out, and it sounded close. I shifted instantly and leaped to my next location, trying to calm my nerve (and now puffy tail) as I moved a few leaves, trying to get to the tree's covered trunk, but also to see what was going on. I could see the back of the grey haired boy as he attacked the others, and then catch Naruto's arm when Naruto tried to hit him with his rasengan. I flicked my tail when I watched as Kiba slammed though Naruto, who was really a clone, with his Piercing fang before I jumped over to a different tree, this time closer to the pink haired girl. I couldn't help but smile when I saw Kiba barreling towards her.

"They placed us both in a straight path. So they were aiming for this!" She exclaimed, slowing moving up from her crouched position, while, at the same moment, got into a crouch.

"You think you can get us with some shit like this?!" The grey-haired boy yelled as he ran towards the girl. 'Yes, yes we do.’ I thought to myself as I spied a dark shadow-like thing racing and attaching itself to the coffins and girl.

"Shit... Dammit!!" She hissed out when she looked over and saw Shikamaru.

'And that would be my cue,' I said as I jumped down, placing my last paper bomb on the trees trunk before growing to my maximum size, landing in between the girl and Harmony. 'I'll be taking this.' I then grabbed a mouthful of Harmony's clock and clothes underneath before I leapt away, dragging her lifeless-like body with me, at the same time Kiba grabbed Sasuke's coffin and made his getaway.

"TAYUYA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

"No... It's!!" Tayuya yelled back, most liking trying to say that she couldn't move. I jerked my head, flipping Harmony onto my back, before turning back and watching the beautiful moment as the boy realized that he was going too fast to dodge his teammate and the two colliding right after Shikamaru canceled his shadow possession jutsu.

I placed some chakra into my paws when I got close to a large tree branch to stop myself from skidding too much as I stopped, taking in my surrounding as I tried to re-positioning Harmony she wouldn't fall off. I couldn't help but feel happiness flood through me.

'She's safe. We got her,' I gave the real Naruto, who I had stopped beside, a cat-like smile and let out a loud purr when I saw that he had caught Sasuke's coffin that Kiba had thrown to him. 'We got them.'

"Naruto, Shikamaru, Nala! Let's get outta here!" Kiba yelled in joy as he rocketed towards us. No one had to be told twice as we high tailed it away, the words 'Mission Accomplished' running through our minds.

'Just wait till we see Rin Harmony. She will have the biggest grin you'll ever see on her face, and probably go off speaking in her native lang-"

"YOU’RE NOT GETTING AWAY!!"

'Oh fuck...' We all looked back and say the grey haired boy barreling towards us, half of his face covered in strange markings and the bloodlust clear in his crazed eyes. Only one other thing ran through my head, 'he's way faster than I thought!! I won't let them take Harmony or Sasuke again!!'

"Akamaru! Hurry up when you're done setting the trap!" Kiba yelled as he approached the canine. What Kiba yelled out jolted me into remembering the on the bombs I had set.

"STOP HOWLING, YOU BITCH!!" The boy yelled out behind us. I couldn't help but feel my tail start puffing up again when I could feel the murderous intent rolling off of him.

'WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!!- KIBA!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!"I yelled out when I saw the dog-boy in my side vision suddenly change his course.

'Oh god.... He's going to kill me isn't he?! Kiba! I don't want to die!!'I heard a small voice cry out, coming from the same direction Kiba had just ran too. 'Akamaru!!' I realized as I craned my head back as I ran, trying to see the small white dog, but at the last moment, all I saw was a light of light as all of our paper bombs went off at the same time. Even though I thought we had put a decent amount of distance between us and the traps, the heat that the explosion washed over us as the as the energy it produced pushed as back as the three of us stop.

"KIBA! AKAMARU!!" Naruto yelled out and Shikamaru swore. I blinked my eyes a few times, the light blinding me, but I still managed to barely make out Kiba's curled up form falling through the air, then disappearing. The same thing happened to the other boy, but he flew in a different direction before I couldn't see his form either.

"Damn! What happened!?" Naruto asked as I looked frantically all over, my vision slowly coming back.

'I... I don't know. I just saw them fall, but not anymore. I think they fell down some type of cavern of something!'

"YOU SON OF A..."

"That other one's coming!!" Shikamaru exclaimed as we all looked and saw her, pink hair flying. "I'll do something about this. Naruto, you gotta take that barrel and go on head!! You too Nala! Get Harmony outta here!!"

I felt ice run through my veins as he said this, but I slowly lowered my head. I may have tried to argue against leaving someone behind when it came to Choji and Neji, but this whole I known it was the only thing we could do, and now even more so now that we had both Sasuke and Harmony. Getting them back to the village was now our top priority.

“Shikamaru…” Naruto said, a little speechless, not in the good way, as he looked at the other boy. I gently gabbed part of his pants with the tip of my teeth, moving my head in hope of getting him in motion.

“HURRY!” Desperation was leaking into his voice now, so I tugged even harder.

‘Naruto! We have to go! Shikamaru, just like the others, will be fin-’ That was all I was able to get out before my thoughts were blocked out when something gripped my throat, cutting off my air, and as a large shadow fell behind us.

-----------------

Sorry for the crap chapter. Writers block, plus I'm cutting down my word count so I can get these chapters done sooner (or so I hoped)

You know, I’ve never known how hard it was to write in Nala’s POV until I tried to write some big chunks. I don’t why, I guess because she seems so Harmony-like to me in a way, but still different, and I keep on changing my mind if I want her to have some funny part (like shopping) or really serious (like this chapter) or to have her more cat like (when she was first in the story). And when I write her POV I tend to want to make the other characters, like Naruto, sound smarter or dumber than what they really are, there’s no happy medium >:@. Plus, she’s a cat, how in the hell am I supposed to know how she thinks!

Also. My computer has been acting up, so whenever I try and load the manga pages that I use some flipping ads pop up instead!! ASHDCGVAKSGVFCSTYFVCSUYSF

Taren Ken - Mach Punch... Very lame Sakkon... Very lame.

FOLLOW!!!

COMMENT!!

VOTE!!!

And… Oh god, I’m seriously running out of things to put here!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

Stay Genki!

Sensei out!!