---6---

'Ino!' I yelled as I watched my friend disappear before my eyes. I froze on the spot, unable to believe what had just happened.

---

We were into the second day of our trip, we were heading out to the Land of Fire's boarder, to rid of some bandits that had been terrorising and destroying the small villages around that area. It was a simple mission, track down the bandits and locate them, send a message back home and the rest would be handled by the pros, in this case the ANBU agents.

'We all need to stick together, because now we're nearing the boarder, we're crossing into bandit's country. We all have to keep on high alert, at any moment we could be ambushed,' Asuma Senseu warned us on more than one occasion. We took it into thought but most of the time, we were all talking and pretty relaxed. Choji and I were sharing some potato chips, while Ino was telling Shikamaru about the different types of flowers and which ones her favourite were. Shikamaru was clearly not interested in Ino's flowers but more with the clouds. Asuma Sensei chuckled to himself and lit another cigarette. Choji turned to me and grinned.

'Hey Misaki, can I ask you something?' he asked. I smiled at him.

'Sure Choji, anything,' I replied.

'Misaki, when we get back, do you wanna...?'

'Yes?' I asked, curious at his sudden hesitation.

'Do you wanna....LOOK OUT!' Choji yelled, throwing himself over me as I caught a glimpse of something flying towards us.

'Choji! Saki!' I heard Ino cry. Choji quickly picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, running with me as I saw an explosion go off where the both of us had just been. Choji set me down when we were sheltered in a large bush. I gasped, trying to make sense of that event.

'W-W-What was that?' I stammered. Choji shook his head and looked out of the bush.

'An exploding kunai, we've been ambushed!' he told me, breathing heavily. 'Saki-chan, are you hurt?'

I shook my head and got to my knees, after recovering from my shock.

'I'm fine, where are the others?' I asked, worried for their safety.

'They must've taken cover too,' Choji whispered. I managed a look out from where we were hiding. This was going to be an intense battle, and someone was going to have to make the first move before someone made the last move...

'Choji, I've got a plan,' I whispered, nudging him. He turned and grinned excitedly.

'Great,' he grinned.

I told Choji my plan and soon he was disagreeing.

'Saki, it's too risky! You could get killed!' he argued.

'No, I'll create some clones first, they're bound to fall for it!' I explained. I saw a light scarlet blush appear on his face and I smiled to myself.

'Okay, Saki-chan, but be careful, I've got your back,' he grinned. I nodded, smiling to myself again, before summoning two identical clones that were both strong and pretty much real. They ran out, one taking cover while the other ran into the centre of the large cavern that we were in. Suddenly, ropes flew down and wrapped themselves around my clone, there was some wicked laughter and bandits dropped down everywhere. Choji smirked beside me.

'You were right Misaki, they have no idea about ninjutsu or genjutsu,' he chuckled quietly. I laughed silently. My clone made sounds as if she were struggling and made it look like she was too, making the ugly bandits laugh harder.

'Stupid little girl, looks like someone made the wrong move!' a big ugly guy with an eye patch and an ugly scar running down his face sneered. I growled under my breath. We'll see who's really made the wrong move, won't we?

I summoned more clones as did Choji and we lay them waiting for the right moment. I got ready myself, to jump out with them all, knowing that I'd be able to find the others and get to them while the bandits were distracted.

One of the bandits tugged hard at the ropes that held my clone. She disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the bandits all looked surprised.

'What the-!?' the eye patch guy stammered. Suddenly, all our clones leapt out at once, starting with the second clone that I'd summoned, who took them all by surprise. I leapt out too and went off to find Ino and the others. I found them when Shikamaru used his Shadow Possession Jutsu to meet my own shadow, I followed it and it lead high up into some trees. He let me go and I ran up to the tree bark. I hadn't really nailed the chakra balance in my feet yet, so running straight up the tree would be asking for trouble. I dug my fingers and feet into the tree and easily hauled myself quickly up, until I saw some branches that could get me up the rest of the way.

---FlashBack---

'Misaki, get down from there! You'll fall!' my mother yelled, putting her hands on her hips. I laughed and looked down at her from my high branch.

'Don't worry Mom, it's perfectly safe! I've climbed trees hundreds of times and never once have I fallen!' I grinned. She smiled at me, raising an eyebrow.

'Oh really?' she laughed. I nodded and stood up on the branch, easily keeping my balance. It was high up but heights had never been something that had bothered me. I focused on the tree branch that was a similar height to this one, in the tree next to this one, just a couple of metres away. I ran along the branch and leapt off it, my arms out ready to grab the tree if I missed, but after a few worried gasps from my Mom and a few seconds of feeling light as air, I landed on the branch and easily regained my balance, almost immediately.

''See Mom, nothing to worry about!' I grinned, giving her a closed eyed smile.

----------

I reached the top of the tree and found Ino, Shika and Asuma Sensei waiting there. There were lots of leaves and branches where they were so not only were they a bit harder to get to, but also camouflaged. I grinned when I saw them.

'Guys!' I whispered in excitement. Ino hugged me and Shikamaru sighed.

'What a drag, I didn't ask to be stuck up here, watching the bandits hunt us down, but then again I didn't ask to come on this mission, hmm. Sucha drag,'

'Misaki, are you and Choji both okay?' Sensei asked. I nodded.

'Hai, he was the one that got us both out of there alive,' I replied. Sensei nodded.

'I see your tactics,' Shika smirked. I blinked.

'What do you mean?' I asked, moving closer towards the others.

'You're trying to create a distraction using clones, since we've all worked out by now that the bandits have never crossed paths with ninja's before. So while the bandits are distracted, we can make a get away, get to safer ground and report back to the Leaf. But where did that explosive come from at the start of the ambush?' Shikamaru asked, puzzled. I nodded and shrugged. Nara was a pretty smart guy, despite the lazy side to him.

'We think that it was an explosive kunai,' I told him. But we didn't hang around to discuss it further, I signaled to Choji and he nodded. This was our perfect chance and maybe our only chance to get away. The bandits were completely distracted with the hundreds of clones attacking them. We all made a move and successfully made it past the bandits, or so I thought.

We were all running, Shikamaru and I were up the front with Sensei, Ino was behind and Choji was last. Ino slowed down and ran behind Choji, trying her best to motivate him to run faster.

'You can do it Choji!' she told him. I turned ad smiled at them, before turning back.

'Struggling, Saki?' Shikamaru asked.

'I should be asking you!' I replied. Suddenly, I heard a scream that made my blood run cold. I turned, my eyes wide with shock as I saw a bandit, the big ugly one with the eye patch, grab Ino. I stopped dead in my tracks and watched in horror as the bandit held her under one arm like she was just some rag doll. I didn't know if the others had stopped yet.

'Ino?' I whispered. She looked at me, her eyes wide with fear, her whole face had gone pale like snow. She reached out to me, and called my name, then mouthed at me to run. The bandit smirked and threw something on the ground, which exploded. A smoke bomb? I'd under estimated this bandit, he seemed to be the one who'd recognised our plans and triggered the attack, he may have been a ninja himself...

'INO!' I yelled, as my friend disappeared right in front of my eyes. I stood frozen, unable to move, completely shocked. There were more bandits coming our way, though when they ran into the smoke, they seemed to disappear too. I tried to move but I found I couldn't. I heard Shikamaru behind me and before I knew it, he was pulling me up with him. My legs found their strength and I began running again. I kept looking back, my eyes slightly watering at what I'd just seen. My friend...Ino...I just stood there! I didn't do anything to help her! What kind of a friend am I to watch my friends fall in battle? Why was I so scared? Fear shouldn't have taken over, I have a mind and body that is strong enough to overcome any fear, but did it fail on me? Why didn't I fight the fear and do something? Anything would've been useful! I stopped running when I caught up with the others. We'd made it, all of us but Ino.

'Saki, are you alright?' Choji asked, rushing to my side. I shook my head.

'Ino, we have to go back for Ino!' I yelled, pointing.

'Hey calm down! We don't know where they've taken her for starters!' Shikamaru sighed.

'Shikamaru's right, Saki, we don't know. That's why we're going to find out, Team 10, this is a rescue mission, we'll send word back to Konoha, but we'll notify them of Ino's disappearance, ANBU will be on their way and if we haven't found Ino by the time they've arrived, then we'll have triple the help. But for now, we have to lay low and settle down for the night, it's getting late. We'll plan our strategy for tomorrow and then we'll move out. Understood? Good,' Asuma Sensei said and began setting up camp. The others soon joined in and I helped too but my mind was else where, we were going to get Ino back no matter what, and that is a promise...

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hope you likey! enjoy guys, will update soon, going on holiday now, so i thought i'd just get in this sneaky update ^^ chapter dedicated to MisakiofKonoha who made the amazing cover ^^ updates for this story will be a lot more often now! yay ^^ arigato and stay awesome readers ^^ -Georgie