Humans fear what they can't understand. Humans fear the unknown. Humans crave strength but despise the ones who have an abundance of it. Perhaps this is why people keep secrets. Not because they want to deceive people, but because they are afraid.

-x

Blurs of colors hopped from tree to tree in a fast pace. Swiftly and silently through the thick branches of the surrounding trees.

"Shikaku, I sense chakra signals a couple miles away from here" Inochi told his team captain. It had been a day since they had left Konoha and headed towards Suna. As ninja they had to be constantly on alert but during times of war all of the shinobi were even more paranoid then usual. The third ninja war was at its peak and this mission was crucial as to make sure Konoha didn't suffer more damage than it already had. The chakra signals most likely belonged to enemy ninja, thus they had to be on guard. Damn, just when they had thought this mission would be a simple one.

"!" Inochi's eyes snapped open when the chakra signals were heading in their direction in a fast pace. He looked at both of his team members and signaled that potential enemy ninja were headed their way. The Yamanaka clan leader swiftly moved to the left, narrowly avoiding the Kunai that was shot towards his head. Inochi, Choza, and Shikaku jumped down from the trees and on to the ground, landing quietly. They got in formation, backs against each other, weapons out, and eyes cautiously darting around.

Swiftly and quietly their attackers surrounded them. There were five of them, crouched on the trees. Three men and two women. The men all looked quite similar to one another in build and the little features they could make out from the mask. All of them tall with dark hair and the lower half of their faces covered with cloth. The women however were different in every way possible. The taller woman was curvy with long bright green hair and yellow eyes, and the other smaller woman had short messy black hair and pink eyes that narrowed in on them.

The air was thick with tension, all of them waiting for someone to make a move. Shikaku saw a twitch of a finger from one of the burly ninjas and signaled to his team mates and all three of them jumped out of the way just as the storm of Kunai exploded.

"Iwa nin" Inochi hisses, eyes hostile and hands in position for a attack. His aunt had been brutally murdered by Iwa nin a couple of years ago in her own home. It had shocked and scared the whole of Konoha to know that enemy ninja had gotten inside their village. The security inside and outside of the village and doubled since then to insure that another incident like that wouldn't happen again. But Inochi had been traumatized. He was the one who had found his aunt lying on her kitchen floor, a pool of blood around her and her clothes ripped open. She had been raped before they had murdered her in cold blood. His kind and bright aunt who had showered him with her love after his parents passed away had been killed by those Iwa bastards. Inochi had never trained as hard as he did after her funeral. He was determined to make sure that Konoha would win the war.

"Hand over the scroll and we'll part peacefully" The tiny girl demanded with a surprisingly deep voice. She stood in front of them, legs apart from each other in a military stance, her hands clasped in front of her.

"Why would we give you the scroll 'peacefully' when you attacked us first?" Shikaku looked at her as if she were stupid.

The kunoichi growled at his slightly mocking tone and glared at him in dislike. She really did hate Konoha nin. She thought them to be pompous and arrogant just because they were considered the strongest of the hidden villages.

"Tsk have it your way then, Earth release: Flying Thrown Stones!" The ground shook and rumbled as giant stones rose from the ground and were thrown in their direction in a fast pace. Earth shinobi were always a pain in the ass when it came to their Earth Justus.

"Expansion jutsu!" Choza's left arm stretched and his hand enlarged to catch the large Boulder heading towards him and crushed it in his fist. The Akimichi's secret clan jutsu such as the expansion jutsu always did come in handy. Inochi swiftly evaded the incoming rocks and hit the enemy nin with small but hot fire balls. Shikaku just used his shadows to catch the small boulders and threw them back at their creator. The careless and easy way in which he easily avoided the rocks as if it were nothing but child's play irked the Iwa nin.

"What happened to 'peaceful'?" He asked the pink eyed kunoichi and dodged another rock thrown at him. Shikaku was getting tired of these shinobi. He should probably hurry up and finish this, after all the sooner he finished this mission, the sooner he could go back home and eat his beautiful wife's cooking.

"Tsk" Shikaku spat the toothpick from between his lips and got serious. He hated delivery missions.

-x

"Are you sure it's okay to just leave them like this?" The inoshikacho trio stood in front of the knocked out and tied Iwa nin. Shikaku just rolled his eyes at the question. Inochi had wanted to take the Iwa nin back to the T&I department in Konoha so they could get information on why they wanted the scroll. Well, they would have done that if they didn't already know why they we're after it. Since they already know why the Iwa nin were after the scroll, Shikaku saw no point in taking them back to their village since it would be a problem if they somehow escaped the prison. So he opted to just leave them, unconscious and tied on the forest floor.

"Troublesome. Let's go Inochi." Shikaku ignored the question since he knew that Inochi already knew the answer and that the attempt to change his mind fell on deaf ears.

Since their little encounter with the troublesome Iwa nin was finished, they sped towards Suna, already sick of the mission. They soon came face to face with the blistering heat of the desert and all three released sighs. They hated the desert.

"C'mon, the faster this mission is finished the sooner we get home"

-x

"Thank you for your hospitality, Kazekage-sama" The three Konoha shinobi bowed to the young Kage in respect. They had arrived in Suna about a day ago, give or take a few hours. Soon after the Kage had read the scroll, there had been an immediate meeting of the council of Suna including the inoshikacho trio. The scroll was a proposal for alliance with Suna and Shikaku could tell that the Kage of Suna was very interested in it. Since all of the nations were in fact in the middle of a war, the Hokage didn't want to mace more enemies so he proposed an alliance to Suna. Suna despite not being one of the stronger nations of the five elemental nations, the third thought it was better to have them on their side anyway. Better to have an alliance rather than have them against the village, although Suna could possibly betray them in the future. But for now Konoha would give them the benefit of doubt.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay longer? You all did just get here after all" The Kage looked towards the team of Konoha nin.

"No, we would prefer to get home as soon as possible. Thank you for the offer." Inochi and Choza looked at each other and smirked. Shikaku was as eager as ever to get home to his wife. Loveick fool. They could still remember the times when they were younger and shikaku complaining about getting nagged by his clan to get married. They quote in his words 'Why do i have to get married to a troublesome woman? I can just adopt a kid'. With all his grumblings about a wife they never thought he was going to be so...

'Whipped' Both Inochi and choza sweatdropped.

"What are you two starring at? Let's go"

The Konoha shinobi hopped from branch to branch, trying to get home as soon as possible. For every ninja, the thing that pushes them to do their best on missions is the knowledge that they can go home to their village and their families. The sooner they get home the sooner they could see their wives and their clans. The families that they have to get back to. Their precious village they want to continue to protect. They want to pass on the will of fire on to their children and watch as the new generation of the leaf village flourish. With this in mind, all of them quicken their pace.

Shikaku narrowed his eyes. Something wasn't right here. They were in the forest and yet there was no noise. No sound of birds or the crickets. Nor was the sound of river heard. Everything was dead silent. Shikaku's eyes widened.

"Genjutsu!" All three of them did a handsign.

'Kai!'

The genjutsu faded out of existence and they came face to face with dozens upon dozens of Iwa nin. Inoshikacho looked at eachother in alarm. They had no idea that Iwa would want revenge for such a petty thing, and to have so many ninja too as well as a shinobi that was as skilled in genjutsu that not even Inochi could sense it. As skilled as they were. They were out numbered.

"Konoha nin. Drop your weapons and come with us quietly" A short chubby man with a big bulbous nose walked stepped out of the crowd of about 50 Iwa nin that were surrounding them. The trio scoffed, they were konoha nin. even if the odds weren't in their favor. They were gonna go down fighting. Punching, kicking, knocking teeth out, and setting them on fire. They were proud ninja's of the village hidden in the leaves and they would be damned if they didn't go down with at least giving the opposing ninjas a beat down.

"Lets show these mother-f*ckers how Konoha does it" Inochi pulled his gloves up. and flipped his hair over his shoulder in an entirely 'manly' way.

'He's such a diva' Shikaku and Choza sweatdropped in the back. Inochi is no doubt a man but he has his moments.

"Katon: Phoenix fire ball jutsu!" Shikaku spit out multiple balls of fire (A/N: Hahaha that sounded weird even to myself). These iwa nin were always so pesky. They were like roaches, no matter how hard you stomp on them they just get back up and them you try to set them on fire and just when you think they are dead, they aren't. It was the most frustrating thing ever.

"Choza!" Shikaku yelled as his bulky teammate fell over. Inochi following soon after. There were senbon sticking out of their necks. Shikaku's nose twitched.

'Poison' Shikaku cursed. Spinning around he got ready to fire another jutsu. But he was too late. A senbon in his neck, he felt his knees go weak and he fell over.

"Not so tough now huh? Konoha scum!" A iwa nin spat with his gruff voice as he stepped on Shikaku's back. Shikaku spat out poison filled blood.

'When you're in danger you can't get out of, grab the necklace and say the word, bara' His wife's words echoed in his head. Could this necklace truly help them get out of this? He glanced at Inochi and mentally grinned as Inochi caught his gaze. He looked at Choza and then at Inochi and back to himself. This signaling that what he was saying or about to do, the both of them should follow. Then he glanced down at his necklace. Both of the other members got a look of understanding on their faces.

Shikaku grunted as he got back up and kicked the shinobi on top of him with almost all of the strength he could muster. The man went flying back and crashed into a tree, breaking it in half with the impact. And before any of the Iwa nin could blink, Shikaku grabbed the necklace.

"Bara!" He said in a gruff voice. Just as he felt being sucked into a swirling vortex, he saw both of his teammates doing the same and being sucked in a swirling vortex as well.

-x

Isobel was having a fairly normal day. Getting up in the morning had been more of a chore than anything since her husband wasn't with her. She was anxious, no doubt about it. She was worried out of her mind, as she had right to be. Her love, her future husband was out there most likely in danger or even half dead.

"Shit!" She cursed as blood dripped from her finger. Anyone who knew her, knew that when she got nervous or stressed. She cooked. It was her way of getting things out of her mind and when she thought harder, things like this happened. Her hands were soft but the only reason she had no scars on them from cutting it accidently with the kitchen knife was because of potions.

Isobel whipped her head towards the door of the main house as she felt the wards being breached and heard a dull thud sound. She held on to her skirt and pulled it up so she wouldn't trip as she ran to the door. She slammed the door open, her chest heaving and her hair in a slight disarray. She almost screamed at the sight in front of her. Her Shikaku and his team mates were on the ground infront of the main house, bruised and thin metal, chopstick looking things poking out of their neck.

"Haruko! Haruko!" Isobel yelled for one of the clam members. She didn't even flinch as the woman appeared out of seemingly no where.

"Hai Maemi-Sama" Isobel pointed a shaky finger at her fiancée's team.

"Help me bring them inside"

-x

"Ow! Ow! woman, please! not so hard!" Shikaku flinched at the angry look he received from his wife. He had been informed of his fiancée's distress as soon as he woke up a couple hours ago. He woke up to the sight of his wife curled up on a chair with his hand in her grip. As soon as she opened her eyes she was fussing over him endlessly before she proceded to chew his head off.

"Hush, Shikaku!" Isobel scolded her husband as he moved too much. She was bandaging him up, even though she had already given him all of the necessary potions, she still insisted on bandaging him up since the poisoned senbon wounds on his neck were still open due to the strange poison that she had thankfully managed to extract thanks to the bezoar. He looked half dead when she saw him. They all did, and that scared her shitless.

"I'm fi-" Shikaku cut himself off when he saw her eyes were misty. Muttering a 'troublesome woman', he gathered his now weeping fiancée in his arms and held her to his chest, burying his nose in her fiery hair.

"I'm sorry for worrying you but you have to understand that this is what we do. I would say that this is the last time that this will happen. That I won't constantly be in situations of life and death because this is what we do. I'll try not to die so soon so stop crying already woman" He grunted and gave himself a mental pat on the back when he heard her sniff and then giggle.

"you suck at comforting people, you troublesome man" She then proceeded to kiss him senseless. She was just glad that he was alive.

-x

A/N: I suck at writing fight scenes, so don't expect many of them. Sorry for the very long weight, you guys have been impatient and I am honestly sorry. With exams and what not plus summer assignments and what not I had absolutely NO time. THis chapter was short too, so sorry once again.

-Sorry guys i meant wife. Wife.