__Sara Pov__


We travelled to the meeting point as quickly as could be expected. You know, with Choji eating the whole way, Ino fretting over this or that, Shika just being... Shika, Asuma with a mouth full of suckers and a pack of cigerettes 50 feet under the earth, and me just laughing at Asuma's face.


As to how one of his packs of cigrettes ended up 50 feet under the earth? Well we were passing a field full of steam gysers for whatever reason and he pulled out one of his packs. I had already stopped him 5 times from smoking and this time I grew slightly fed up. I immediately turned on my heel, ripped the pack out of his hands, and chucked it. It was actually pure coincidence that it landed in a gyser.


The whole sucker in the mouth thing? Well, lets just leave the reasons for that to your imagination, shall we?


Either way I managed to stop Asuma from smoking on the trip to meet the clients. We arrived a half hour earlier than they were planned to make it there, so we sat on the side of the rode waiting. Eventually a faint cloud of dust could be seen coming from the canyon approaching us. When they got near enough that we could verify it was them we stood.


"Hello," Asuma went and stood in the way of the caravan, "We're Konoha shinobi. You requested protection as you passed through the area, correct?"


An old man walked forward with a young girl at his side. The man spoke first, "We are the caravan Winged Tiger, we are happy to make your aquaintance. Could we ask your names?"


"Of course. I'm Asuma and behind me are my teammates Choji, Shikamaru, Ino, and Sara." he gestured to each of us as he introduced us. Somehow he had managed to light a cigerette and was smoking it.


"Ah! Smokey!" I flashed over to him, creating a clone to take my place. The clone reached up as if to grab the cigerette. Asuma went to block the hand, but his arm went straight through. He stood confused for a moment until I landed on his back quickly exchanging the cigerette for a sucker and running off to stomp it out.


The two people from the caravan stood shocked at the scene while Ino and Choji just burst out laughing. Shika stood to the side shaking his head.


Asuma accepted the sucker grudgingly and turned back to the two people. "You'll have to excuse that scene just barely. I'm afraid that we have a bet going on about my smoking habits."


"You know these things kill you right?!" I turned to face him in complaint.


He didn't respond, obviously.


"That's quite alright. We feel much safer in your care after witnessing that anyways." The young girl spoke up. She was about 5'8" and had seriously long green hair. Her eyes shone a clear crystal blue and held barely surpressed laughter shining in them.


I turned to them as well, bowing my head slightly in apology. "Sorry about the interruption. I'm sorry to ask, but we didn't get your names."


She smiled down at me warmly. "That's quite alright. This is a good friend, almost like a grandfather to me really. His name is Genji. I'm Sami, the leader of this caravan."


"Well them, we've delayed here long enough, shall we continue through the land of fire?" Asuma changed the subject completely.


"Of course, lead the way." Sami gestured with one hand.


"Excuse me," Shika finally joined in the conversation, "but how many wagons are in your caravan?"


"We have about 15 wagons all told. Might I ask why?" She seemed genuinely perplexed by the question.


He didn't answer and instead looked at me, I nodded knowing we were thinking along the same lines. Asuma was too surprisingly, and as we walked off he explained it to Sami for us.


"Sara and Shikamaru are two of our smartest genin, they'll each take a side and stand a few carts back from me. I'll be in the lead, protecting the first 5 carts, then Shikamaru and Sara will protect the left and right sides respectively of the next five, lastly will be Ino and Choji protecting the last 5. Shikamaru and Sara will be able to relay my orders to the other two clearly."


"Oh, I see."


I walked over to the right side of the wagon train, "Ino, come with me to the right side."


"Then I'll go with Shikamaru," Choji announced and followed after him, snacking on chips.


Ino stood there for a brief moment before realizing and following me, "Right."


We positioned ourselves on the sides. In case of an attack Ino and I would work as a two man cell. Choji and Shika would do the same. Asuma was Asuma so he got both sides in his own team.


"Well then, let's head out." said Asuma, and the walk began.


-_-|8=(O.) punch denied


It was way more difficult to stop Asuma's smoking when we were on the road, mainly because he was a good 45 feet in front of me and he altrenated between sides. I had the advantage of being able to smell the smoke though as I was walking behind him. The instant I smelt smoke from the other side I would pick up a rock, jump, and launch it at his hand. This happened several times during the first day, much to the entire group's enjoyment.


We also fended off a couple stray attacks from bandits. There was never a group bigger than 5 or 6 and they were foolish for thinking that they could take us down with that manpower.


Eventually we reached the point where they decided to make camp. The lead wagon blew on a whistle three times and after a short pause there was an answering two notes from the last wagon.


They pulled up into a clearing forming a rough circle with the wagons. people started to busy themselves with preparing the camp for the night. Children began to gather the wood for the fires, woman and girls began to prepare the food, and the men left on a small hunt. Asuma went with the hunters to protect them and the four of us set up a loose defense around the camp.


That night we all sat around small fires that dotted the area. it had been an easy going day and we had gotten through a fifth of the journey. The wagon train had already been moving then though and I estimated it would take about 2 more days to see them on their way.


Asuma and Shika set up a gaurd schedule and we all went off to bed except Shika and Ino.


The night was uneventful and no one attacked the camp that night. I hoped that Kakashi and my team had gotten those bandits taken care of, it would make my job a lot easier.


_-_

The next day we rose, stoked the fires and made breakfast. The meal was delicious, there was bacon, eggs, and bread. Last nights hunt had been very successful providing the thick fatty meat which sat on my plate coated lightly in a sugar glaze. This caravan knew how to cook.

When we got on the road later that morning it was to clear skies. The weather was beautiful and there was a peaceful tranquility about the air.

We walked for hours until we suddenly were forced to stop on a narrow stretch of road. There was a tree fallen across our path at the bend in the road. Men began to climb out of the first few wagons with axes to clear the way. As soon as the last wagon joined us on the stretch of road however there was a giant crash that sounded behind us.

With a great deal of trepidition I turned to see that one of the older, thick trees had fallen across the path, preventing any escape that could be possible on the narrow road. Not a moment after the tree settled down to rest on the road bandits streamed from the forest that encroached upon the path from both sides.

I unsheathed my sword, already hearing sounds of fighting on the other side. I ran at the men and upon reaching them ducked under a wild swing of an ax. Whipping my sword out in front of me I slice through the muscle of his lower arm, severing muscle and causing him to drop the weapon. I spun and danced through the advancing bandits, leaving a trail of the injured in my wake.

This was all stopped when I heard a shreik from Ino, immediately cut of by a meaty hand. I faced the man that grabbed her as the other bandits formed a circle around me, the wagon train forgotten for the moment.

"Surrender," the man spoke in a deep, rough voice. He had a heavily broken nose from previous fights and scars all across his face. His build was muscular, but to the point of being over the top. In all, not a pretty face to look at.

"Why should I?" I spoke, attempting to sound confident. Asuma was currently helping on the other side with Shika. He had no idea of the situation over here.

In response the man took out a short knife holding it to Ino's throat. "I'm sure you already know the answer to that."

I paused with the response I already had prepared. These men were ruthless, and would have no problem killing Ino. The only option I could think of was, most likely, the dumbest, but it was the only one where we all had a chance of living. I could never make it to the man in time to stop the blade from killing Ino.

"Well, I'm afraid you might have picked the wrong person to grab," I smiled, but it never reached my eyes.

"You're lying," he called the bluff, "you care too much about your comrades."

"Yes, but I'm worth more to them then she is." Ino's eyes widened at that, but she remained silent, too aware of the situation.

"And why would that be? A girl no older than 14 years old? What makes you different from her?"

"I'm co-captain to the team," I lied smoothely.

His eyes widened slightly, too miniscule to tell if you weren't looking for it. "Well what does that have to do with the situation?"

"You don't catch on well do you? I would be a valuable hostage. My team would be willing to trade a hefty sum for me. Not to mention you wouldn't have to lose any lives in this exchange. What do you say? That girl is worth nothing to you dead, but right now you have the option of gaining a good deal."

"You're saying you would willingly take her place? No trying to escape?" I could tell the idea apealed to him.

"No escape attempts, you have my word. Just call off the attack, let me have a word with her, and you can take me away."

"Why do you need to talk to her?" his tone was instantly suspicious.

"So she can tell my team about the deal. Do you agree?" I bit my lip, prepared for the worst. A smile broke out on his face and I could tell we were in the clear.

"Fine, say what you must to the girl. Make it quick." He sheathed the knife and threw Ino at me. She fell to the ground on her knees.

I knelt before her and she turned her head up to look at me. "Sara, are you insane? They co-" I cut her off with a hand.

"I know what I'm doing. Can you pass on a message to Shika? Tell him exactly this: Find Ino now, I should hear. Tell him everything. Many inner serious sounds, image over now. Did you get all of that?"

"But wha-"

I cut her off sharply, "Can you remember everything!?" When she nodded yes I leaned in closer whispering hastily in her ear. When I finished she looked up at me worriedly.

"Sara, you ca-" I hit her on the back of the neck and she fell to the dirt.

__Asuma Pov__

I finished helping Shikamaru and Choji with their side. When I knew they had it under control I turned to go see how Sara was fairing. That was when I noticed one thing off.

There was no sound of fighting.

I jumped to the other side quickly and what I saw was not pretty. Sara was walking towards one of the men and stopped when she heard me land. Some of the men started to charge me but someone else, the leader I presume, called them back.

Sara turned to look at me then jerked her head to the side. Looking in that direction I saw Ino unconcsious on the ground. I flashed over there, picking up her limp body and getting here away from danger. By the time I looked back Sara was unconcsious under the mans arm.

Still looking on I saw a faint flutter of eyelashes from Sara, but that was all. Then the man holding her lifted a silver whistle to his lips blowing one long solid note. The bandits all ran into the trees then. I would have followed except one thing stopped me, and that was the look in Sara's eyes.

They held absolute trust in them as well as the unspoken message to wait.

I let the men escape and soon all sounds of battle ceased. I carried Ino to the first cart and laid her down on a pile of cloth. Soon Shikamaru and Choji joined us.

Shikamaru looked around before widening his eyes slightly, his only show of concern. "Where's Sara?" He spoke quietly.

I shook my head, unwilling to respond. Choji was worried as well by now looking for the masked blonde.

Shikamaru didn't let it end at that though. "Where is Sara?" his voice was tense with barely controlled by emotion.

I looked him in the eye and an understanding passed between us. I then spoke the one sentence I never wanted to.

"They took her as a hostage."