The moment the world stopped spinning, Kazue had shifted to a sitting position. The smoke seared her lungs, harsh coughs tearing through her even as she could feel chakra being directedly to the several burns littering her skin. There'd been no warning to the event, she wasn't even sure who'd triggered the trap.

All she knew was that if it had been enough to leave burns all over her skin for a few seconds, she needed to find Miki. Just the force alone could have been enough to hurt the baby.

Pulling herself to her feet despite the matter of the smoke still making it impossible the deep breaths needed to fill her lungs, she began attempting to pinpoint Miki through the smoke. It took a moment, but she managed to spot the woman slumped against a bit of the wall that was still intact despite the fact that the majority of the wood in their part of the area had been torn apart in the explosion. Within seconds she'd dropped down by Miki's side, her hands lightly searching for injuries.

The sounds of the others checking on each other was a low buzz in her ears throughout the entire process. By the time she'd dropped her hands to her sides, her mind racking for the best way to deal with this, the smoke had begun to clear. The rest of the group began to move her way, Noriaki firmly stepping up to inform them that it was best to give Miki space given that the air still wasn't the best.

Kazue could only stare at her at first, cursing herself for not finding someway to force the redhead to go home when they'd found her. There were no broken bones- thankfully- but severe burns and bleeding scratches covering several places on her body. The shock from that alone could have pushed the woman's body into labor or worse. Then there was the large, wooden splinter shoved into her thigh. It was a miracle that the splinter had somehow managed to miss the artery. Spurred into action by the urgency of the matter, Kazue shifted her hands through a series of signs. Her hands instantly lit up with the glow of medical jutsu and she settled one just next to the splinter, her other gesturing for Noriaki's attention.

"Get me the bandage from Jun's pack."

Jun blinked, a grin flitting across his lips within seconds.

"How'd you know I kept up that habit, Kazue-chan?" he questioned, pulling the item in question off of his back to hand over to Noriaki. "We're supposed to be on an easy mission, you know!"

Despite his light words, his eyes were focused on Miki, obvious worry crinkling his brow. It came as a surprise to no one- given that the boy allowed his teacher closer than nearly anyone else he knew. Most assumed it the result of his stay with her after the events of his childhood- an assumption which he wouldn't openly admit to be true.

The moment that Noriaki had settled the bandages next to Kazue, the girl instructed him to grip the shard of wood, her other hand settling down on the opposite side of it than the one she'd already had pressed to the skin. She closed her eyes, mentally feeling for the internal injuries she'd already managed to knit back together, as well as for what might be injured if she simply ordered the boy to pull the wood back out. After a second, her eyes flickered open and she shook her head.

"Just a moment."

Pulling her hands away, she shifted them through another series of signs, quicker this time due to the large amount of practice she had in this particular jutsu. In a typical situation, she wouldn't have even had to do that much, but this was to use on someone. She wanted to make sure the chakra scalpel was perfect. Soon, she was using it, brow knitted. Once satisfied with the improvement to the situation, she switched back to the original jutsu and pressed her hands against Miki's still prone form.

"Pull it out."

The moment that he'd done so- sending blood gushing to the surface- Kazue bit her lip and focused on controlling the flow. Knowing without her saying what she wanted to be done, Noriaki instantly grabbed the bandage and began wrapping it around the woman's leg. The second he'd finished, Kazue rocked back on her heels, eyeing her patient critically.

"How bad?"

It was Neji who'd ventured to ask the question. She hesitated, then shook her head.

"I can't completely tell, I haven't been trained in the skills I'd really need to be certain about the baby. She needs to go back to the village, if she stays here it'll almost definitely end in at least a premature birth, and we can't handle something like that, not when the child would be far too early. Let alone the fact we're in the middle of a dangerous mission."

They all took that in. Most of them had various injuries, scratches here and there from debris thrown up in the explosion, but none of them were in the shape Miki was. She and Kazue had received the majority of it, the latter easily dealing with the cuts and burns without as much as a thought to the matter.

"Noriaki, you'll have to go with her," Kazue continued within seconds, ignoring the slight frown the boy sent her. "Medical skills will be a must as you take her back and no, that doesn't mean that I should go. I'm not leaving yet. Not without news of Hika-chan."

The jounin in question studied her with a narrowed gaze, as if considering if he should argue the matter. The others glanced at each other, questioning who should go.

"Lee, you go with him," Neji announced, startling the boy to attention. "He'll need someone who can fight if you run into trouble."

As Lee voiced his acceptance of the role- his usual tendency towards dramatics forgotten in the seriousness of the situation- Noriaki sighed. The expression on Kazue's face needed no explanation. Even with how long it'd been since he'd seen it, he knew that there was no arguing with that look. As soon as he'd realized this, the blonde bent down to carefully pull his teacher into his arms. He grunted slightly when her full weight settled into his arms, the weight a bit more than he'd been expecting. He'd had to carry the woman once- a mission where she'd managed to hurt herself rather decently- and she'd weighed little more than Kazue.

The moment that he was confident he wouldn't drop her, he simply offered Kazue a look that, if she was able to read him as well as she had once done, he was certain would tell her exactly how careful he expected her to be. When she rolled her eyes, he turned around and started the way they'd come with Lee enthusiastically following at his heels.

The moment they were out of sight, Kazue slipped to a fully standing position and eyed the walkway before them. Without waiting for her to say something Neji nodded in confirmation the moment she looked to him.

"Now that I know they're there, it'll be easy to spot."

Jun furrowed his brow, looking between the two of them.

"Did I miss something?" he questioned, his tone full of his usual, whining complaint that appeared when he felt left out of something.

"Neji will watch out for the traps," Kazue explained, starting forward as she spoke. "I'm decent at recognizing them, but I can't see everything."

Ignoring anything Jun chirped following her explanation, the girl cautiously studied the hall before them, making sure to keep even with Neji as she walked. The boy was silent for the most part, but she could tell from the way he tensed occasionally and mutter a cautious word under his breath that the hall wasn't void of traps. Not that she had to wait long before being proved right. By the time they'd made it to the stairwell at the far end, they'd had to pause to carefully step over three tripwires, purposely go the wide way around a corner to avoid setting off a explosive-tag that Kazue had ended up having to disarm anyways, and pause ten times to figure out how to get around pressure-sensitive boards, one of which they'd ended up setting off despite their best efforts.

Needless to say, she in a far from pleasant mood by the time they'd all paused outside of the wooden framed doorway. Seeing no sign of any visible traps and knowing she stood the best chance of suriviving if there was one, Kazue waved for the others to stay back as she took a cautious step forward. The moment her foot breached the entrance, however, Neji motioned for her to stop. When she turned a questioning look on him, he shook his head, studying the stairwell critically.

"... there's someone there," he muttered under his breath after a second. "I... didn't sense them move. It's the shinobi that was with the girl from the forest. He's a level above here."

Kazue hesitated, casting a look at their two teammates behind them, then back to Neji.

"... is there any other way up?" she murmured quietly in return.

He shook his head.

"Unless we backtracked and searched for windows from outside or wanted to chance trying to cross to the other side of this level, this is the only path. We'll have to take our chances with--"

Jun shouldered his way between the two consulting shinobi, his hands shoved deep in his pockets as he eyed the dark stairwell..

"Then what are you two waiting for?" he questioned, ignoring the dirty look he'd earned himself from Kazue. "If it's practically the only way then there isn't much we can do, is there?"

Kazue sighed in response, only taking one more, cautious glance at the dark air before starting through the doorway once again. The second she'd passed underneath the frame, Neji seized her arm and sent the girl stumbling back against his chest. A protest bubbled to her lips, but died the second that a mixture of kunai and shuriken buried themselves into the wooden planks she'd stood on seconds before.

"He knows we're here."

As she shoved away from Neji- who barely noticed with his attention focused on the figure a floor above them- Kazue swore under her breath in response to his simple statement. The red brushing her cheeks from the whole being saved by Neji and pulled against his chest event was easily pushed to the side as she focused on the problem at hand.

"We'll have to chance facing him, though. If we back off now, he'll simply go to the other staircase or join us on this floor. We really don't have a choice."

A dramatic sigh escaped Jun's lips as he instantly side-stepped the Asari and shoved his hands in his pockets as he simply strode through the doorway.

"I've got a better idea."

"Jun," Tenten hissed from behind them. "You idiot!"

"You guys really know how to greet guests," Jun drawled loudly, ignoring Tenten as he cocked his head back to presumably stare up at where the enemy shinobi was watching them from. "It's not nice to throw sharp things, you know."

As laughter drifted down from the mystery man, Kazue moved to join Jun. Neji once again grabbed her by the arm. When she began her irritable protest this time Neji simply used his free other hand to cover her mouth as he dragged her towards the hall that broke off from the one that they'd used to reach the stairs.

"Isn't it obvious what he's doing?" Neji muttered under his breath. "The other stairs- now."

Well aware that Tenten most likely wouldn't be following them- as the girl was an open book to anyone with two eyes in Neji's opinion- he ignored the continuation of Kazue's sputtered protests and pulled her along a safe path. In the end, it was her almost biting his hand that got it removed from her face. She didn't turn back, however, the moment he let her go. Instead, she simply followed him as he carefully picked his way down the hall.

Kazue knew what they had to do, even if she hated it.

The man was in their way, so Jun distracted him. If she got the chance to thank him later, he would brush off the comment with some offhanded excuse as to why he'd done such a thing. The real reason was obvious- if they kept trying to decide how get up to the man to beat him without getting skewered or worse before reaching him the group would run out of time. Each second that passed made the idea that perhaps Hikari was alive somewhere less and less likely. The clearing had been covered in blood- if there was any left in Hikari's body it couldn't have been much.

They needed to know where she was and they needed to know as soon as possible.

They needed to reach the unknown kunoichi.

_________________________

Neji's assumption couldn't have been more true. Tenten didn't hesitate to stay behind, her eyes glued to Jun's back as she strode through the doorway after him. Surprisingly, no more weapons had rained down on the boy. Rather, the laughter grew.

"I like you," the man declared. "Cheeky! Perhaps you're a tiger!"

"Eh, I prefer wolf," Jun retorted instantly. "Suits me more."

Tenten resisted the urge to drop her head into her hand. No doubt, Jun had no more idea what the man was talking about than she did. She was aware, however, what Jun's opinion on wolves happened to be. He'd once made the comment (the topic of what animal they would choose to be given the chance was one that had popped up in class on occasion) that wolves were seen as mysterious and dangerous, both of which ladies found "sexy." So, he was a wolf.

It took all she had to not remind him that if anything, he was a puppy.

"A wolf, huh?" the man replied, a musing tone to his voice.

Within seconds of the words, a figure suddenly dropped down before them, an action that sent confusion through Tenten's mind. Why join them? Staying on the upper level was to the man's advantage. He could attack them all he wanted without fear of retaliation until they'd discovered a way to reach him.

All of this crossed through her mind as she studied him rather critically. At the same time, Tenten automatically shifted into a fighting position as she dropped her hand to her weapons' pouch and drew several shuriken into her grip. The man's hair was pitch-black, something that when combined with the black, mesh shirt, black gloves, and black face cover he wore helped him blend into the shadows. At least, it would have if his black jacket hadn't ended in bright blue, flames along the ends that matched the neon shade of his pants. A strange choice in clothing if she'd ever seen one.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, she realized something else. Something about the style, about the strange, ostentatious flames combined with the single, scarred crimson eye peaking out from behind his onyx bangs, struck her as familiar.

"Okay, Wolf-chan!" the shinobi chimed. "Let's play!"

At the same time as the declaration, the shinobi suddenly snapped forward, the kunai in his hand flinging towards Jun to block off the handsigns the boy had begun to shift through. Without bothering to see if his kunai had landed, the shinobi rounded on Tenten in the same second, his foot slicing through the air and sending the girl stumbling back to avoid the blow. Her eyes widened slightly as the foot swung past her face, barely inches from hitting flesh.

He was fast- almost as fast as Lee. They had that one, slight lucky break. If that blow had been Lee's speed she'd have been taken out already. In that second, she almost wished Jun had been sent with Noriaki instead. The absent thought was gone as quickly as it had appeared as she was forced to focus when the man lunged towards her once more. She instantly sent her shuriken flying towards him and the sound of metal on metal hit the air. She barely had enough time to guess that he'd deflected the weapons with a kunai before having to throw herself backwards to avoid yet another swift blow, this one aimed at her shoulder.

She instantly swiped a kunai from her pouch in anticipation of deflecting the one he was about to throw, and had just managed it when the man suddenly spun away from her to face where Jun had placed himself a few feet up the steps, hands flashing through signs once more.

"Not gonna work," the man chimed in a sing-song voice.

The kunai cut through the air, sending Jun reeling back as he abandoned his handsigns in favor of not being skewered. Before he had the chance to consider his next move man was suddenly in front of him, hands flashing through signs of his own.

"Water Release: Gunshot!"

Before Jun even had a moment to realize what was happening, a barrage of water suddenly sent him crashing through the weak wall behind the twisting staircase. The collapse of the wooden barrier filled the air with dust and wooden debris. Without an ounce of hesitation, the shinobi leapt forward, his hands clasping onto the wood bordering the hole he'd created as he vaulted himself through the open space. Jun (who had been busy trying to fill his empty lungs with air) had just enough time to roll out of the way before the man's feet lightly landed where the boy's chest had been only moments ago.

Within seconds, Tenten had slipped through the hole as well. Unlike the others- whom of which one was trying to catch his breath and the other was laughing as if this was all some sort of game- she paused to eye the room they'd landed themselves in. It was much more spacious than the stairwell, unfortunately. If the rest of the building had been any indicator, empty space meant traps. Then again, would the man have so carelessly flung himself into the room if it was trapped?

It clicked at that moment.

A female shinobi excellent with traps. A male shinobi of overwhelming skill who dressed in an ostentatious manner. She could see their faces clearly in her head as if the time that she'd been curiously flipping through the bingo-book had been only that morning.

Their opponents were S-Class criminals.

So much for finishing this up quickly.

"Get up, Wolf-chan! We're not done yet!"