Aishiteru

A/N: Aren't you surprised? O_O I'm still alive guys. I'm still alive. Oh, by the way. I turned 15 last year on October 6th. Happy really belated to me ;D

Chapter 19: Scars

The blindfolded man cackled as he ran through the trees. He sounded like a madman whose pants were on fire, but liked it.

"Who is that?" asked Miya as the two caught up to the older bunch. Yakedo slowed down a bit so that Anko and Koyuki could really catch up while he explained the situation.

"That blindfold of his is pissing me off," scowled Max as he clenched his fist tightly. Miya nodded in agreement and Yakedo could see identical expressions in both of their eyes.

"He's the leader," Yakedo put it simply, almost copying their glare. "We've been running after him for about an hour or so."

"What?" the two yelled in unison. They knew that if they ran at this speed for over an hour, they'd be tired. There was no sign of any of that tiredness on the three jounin or the blindfolded man.

"Leave, someone else out there might need your help," Yakedo suggested, giving them a very serious look. He increased his pace a bit and began to run backwards to face them. "We'll handle this."

The two growled at this request, but out of respect they nodded.

For the past hour or so Shino, Chie and the younger troops have been fighting off scout ninjas. The younger shinobi took turns fighting, as their stamina wasn't as great as Chie's or Shino's.

Earlier, Shino's insects reported that everything is going okay for now. Everyone is off into their own battles, and only a few of their own people have fallen, and several were at medical stations. However, the location of their leader is still unknown.

"Mushi Arare no Jutsu," muttered the Konoha shinobi. Shino hurled the newly formed balls at various enemy ninja and they exploded on contact. As they were stung by the explosion, Shino ran in to use a little taijutsu. A punch here, a kick there, and more scouts fell to the ground.

Chie had amazing strength and it was evident by the reactions of the enemy ninja with every blow she gave. Shino had no time to admire such a strength, as he was busy rushing to help the younger ones. With a swift knee jolt in the ribs, another shinobi was down and she had some free space. Quickly, she made several hand signs and pulled out an empty sword handle.

"Kaze katana," she muttered, a sharp wind building up at the handle. It formed the shape of a katana and the sound of the rushing winds was not evident.

"Hiya!" yelled young Kira as he drove a kunai into the leg of the older ninja. As the enemy screamed in pain, two more from his group stuck an explosion tag on the man. The three jumped back as they detonated, the man not being able to respond in time.

Fear struck into Kira's heart as he felt a punch in his stomach. He was caught off guard from the satisfaction of another kill, and found himself flying through the air. Shino acted quickly and caught the boy in time.

"Mushi Kabe no Jutsu!" he yelled, forming a bug wall as the shinobi came for another blow. Once his fist got in contact with the wall, he screamed and fell back, feeling his chakra be drained. In one fell swoop, Chie came down on this attacker and input a deep cut into his back.

"KIRA!" she yelled as Shino put down the bug wall. Kira ran out of Shino's arms and into his sister's.

"Chie, I think the younger troops should fall back. They're all tired and it seems that stronger scouts are on their way." Shino seemed a little worried, but it wasn't extremely clear on his face.

"Fine," Chie muttered, holding her weeping brother close to her.

"No!" yelled Kira, now pulling away from his sister, quickly trying to wipe away his tears. "We can still fight!"

"It's useless if you died," Shino responded right away.

Kira's face became angry, "Onii-chan! We can do this! We really can!" Before the boy could storm off the yell more face to face with Shino, his sister knocked him out.

"Let's bring them to the shelters," Chie muttered, her voice a little sad.

"Growing tired yet, Konoha ninja?" the leader yelled, giving Anko a cocky smirk.

"Not at all, blind bastard," Anko retorted, flinging another kunai at his face.

It was an easy dodge, and he responded by flinging some shuriken at her. She dodged it at smoothly as he had dodged her incoming weapon.

"You're really starting to piss me off," she growled, forming several hand signs. The blindfolded leader simply laughed and increased his pace, hoping to dodge whatever jutsu Anko had up her sleeve.

"Katon: Sen'eijashu!" she yelled, snakes pouring from her sleeves.

"Interesting," was all she heard before the leader finally came to a stop. He fell to the ground as his sleeve caught on fire. He forced the snakes away, and was glad that the cloudy skies finally decided to let go of its rain.

"You going to stop running?" she asked, giving him a glare, "Because I want to get this over with as soon as possible."

Yakedo managed to catch up and noticed that Koyuki was gone. He stood next to Anko and gave her a curious look. She turned to him and gave him a smirk, he rose his eyebrow, not knowing what she meant. However, he trusted her and then turned to te blindfolded man.

"Are you mocking us?" asked Anko, pointing at his blindfold, "If you're so confident, just take off that blindfold and get rid of us!"

His expression changed from a smirk to a frown. As quickly as the thunder roared, the frown turned back into a smirk. He rose his left arm and untied the back of his blindfold. The thunder crackled again as Anko brought herself to gasp. Yakedo simply stared in disgust.

There were empty sockets and a long scar across his eyes. Around the edges, he looked a little burnt, but it was still too dark to tell.

"Happy?" he asked, forming several hand signs. The two nodded as they returned to a more alert stance. After he finished with his hand signs he flung about ten kunai at the two jounin. As expected, the dodged it easily and the two ran towards him from each side.

"Suiton: Haka," muttered the leader and the three were pulled into a deep ditch. It all happened quickly, but Anko turned to see water leaving the ground, heading upwards to empty the whole and turn the ground solid. No moisture, only at the top now.

"How about a fair, two on two battle?" the leader offered, biting his thumb. Quickly, he summoned some sort of large crab from the ground. It stood to be about double his size in height, and triple his size in width.

"This'll be fun, won't it be, eh Yakedo?" Anko smirked, blood lust clear in her eyes. There was no more running, just a fight.

"Oh, yes," started the leader, pulling himself into a fighting stance, "I guess you'd like to know the name of your killer."

"I could care less," Anko retorted, laughing to herself.

"You will soon regret your cockiness, dear konoha ninja. Let it be known, that your life will end by my hands. The hands of the great Mokushi!"

Chie tried to compose herself as she and Shino walked away from the guarded shelters. It had come to over two hours of this fighting, and nothing really was settled. There was only death.

"You did a good thing by bringing him back," Shino claimed, the rain pouring down hard.

She didn't respond.

"You know, he's a ninja. You trained him yourself, he was bound to get-"

"Where are you going with this?" she yelled, startling Shino a bit. He backed down and turned away, his hands shoved into his pocket.

There was an awkward silence as the two wandered back onto the battle field. Shino decided it was best not to talk when she was like this, and he didn't mind. He never really was one to talk.

"I'm sorry," she replied, breaking the silence. Shino turned to her and looked her in the eyes. Through the rain, he could tell that she was crying.

He felt a little bad, but that quickly sailed over his head. As Chie was about to hug him in an attempt to ask for comfort, a blade came and sweeped her head off.

Naruto was in a rage as he stormed through the rain. The smell of blood increased as he ripped through enemy ninja, his focus being on the scent of the one who injured Ino. It wasn't until he was stabbed in the back that his rage came to an end and he found his face in the mud.

"Crap," he muttered, feeling the pain in his body again. He could feel himself crying. Sure, she was safe and being taken care of, but she got injured while he was there.

"How am I supposed to become Hokage when I let my friends be hurt right in front of me?" he whispered to himself, not feeling the urge to get up.

A loud yell got him to stand up. He was startled, and freaked out a bit. However, the pain alerted him that he was not in the condition to be freaking out. The yell echoed throughout the forest, and he couldn't help but feel that the voice was a bit familiar.

A/N: Oh my, thank you for the reviews guys 8D I'll try harder to update... Oh, I decided not to do the translations anymore. It should be evident what happens after a jutsu. If you have questions, just PM me.