Book One- The Enemy

Chapter 5

The encampment of the Earth's army was a maze, each tent hindering and helping hide the commanders as the two slipped past unsuspecting patrols. Temari led the way her body slithering past each pathway silently eyes darting from side to side as she quickly chose the next path to take.

Shikamaru followed behind keeping his pace with hers and never breaking a beat, to be caught meant death. It was motivation enough to follow the brisk movements of the woman before him. When she finally stopped, he ducked behind the crate to her side and listened to the patrol.

Two sets of feet scratching the rock below as the shinobi emerged walking away from them and continuing down the path. Temari raised her hand and pointed crouching as she slipped to the next path him following close behind. The large tent in the center, was a war room larger than any other tent in camp and faint voices sounded inside. Temari stiffened as she pressed her back into the barrels beside the tent the sound of the captain inside echoing outside.

"Bastards" She heard the hiss from Kurotsuchi, the Tschuikage's granddaughter and the commander of the troops "If those damn idiots thought it was smart to engage a full Sand patrol, then they didn't deserve to be on the front" a pause then a stammering from a man.

"But Lady Kurotcuchi, they were merely newly appointed chunin" He began and the sound of a fist slamming into the table silenced the room.

"Their rank doesn't matter to me, do you know what this means" another heavy pause one where Temari glanced at Shikamaru who narrowed his eyes under his hood listening intently "if we engage both the Sand and the Leaf we'll be pulling our strength away from the Rain, and we need reinforcements there" A sigh then silence.

"My Lady I believe that the troops at their borders are smaller than we believe" the same man spoke. "Intel reports a little over hundred for Sand and two hundred or so for the Leaf. We have over seven hundred able shinobi ready to strike"

"Don't speak about the Leaf" a groan escape Kurotcuchi "Their captain has beaten our odds more than once" Temari caught the small smirk on Shikamaru's face, the comment filling his ego, and rolled her eyes as she continued to listen.

"Ah yes the Nara boy I remember his father Shikaku's during the third great war" A long sigh and a shuffle of paper "He's as feared as he was respected, if his boy is anything like him, he'll be merciless, my Lady"

"Please just because they call him a genius doesn't mean he is one. We have the element of surprise. There see that, when he knocked down the canyon pass, he closed off our only entrance into the Land of Fire, so we'll have to impose a new entrance point, closer to the Sand. We can avoid passing through the Land of Rain. This way we can take our army around when they engage and pick off the remaining troops. If the sand wins we might have a bit of a struggle" she heard a short laugh "I heard the Suna princess and prince are there leading the army" Kurotcuchi sighed "I can't stand that woman" Temari bit back a grin under her mask "She alone could take down half the troops if we don't plan it carefully, wind users like her are too dangerous to come close to, we'll need long distance fighters for her unit" A pause and a shift of the tent as someone entered.

"My lady we have reason to believe that our troops near the Rain have been compromised" Kurocuchi gasped.

"How?"

"The communications have stopped; it's been nearly two days since our last update and the three hundred shinobi there haven't made it to our borders yet"

"Damn it" The two leaned back into the crates as the shuffle of the tent was heard and the voices became faint. Temari waited a moment and glanced around the edge before crouching low and turning the corner slipping into the tent. Standing her eyes widening to the maps placed before her. Shikamaru followed quickly sharing her expression as they both stepped forward looking through the figures and drawings on the map borders.