Summer Area

Roku sprinted along a cliff side, his teammates right behind him as he ran. Not much to drink around here, he thought. He stayed close to the cliff to take advantage of the shade it provided - not much of a breeze, but at least it was a bit cooler here. He squinted and saw a hint of blue in the distance - and oasis? Might be a mirage, but better than waiting against rocks all day. He ran toward it with Sora and Touma right behind him.

He let out some chakra as he ran, forming a thin cloud of moisture around him - enough to keep sunburns and the worst of the heat at bay, anyway. Thankfully the tiny sparks that ran through it were small, hard to see, though they did glow - still, he supposed, he wouldn't need the cloud at night if that oasis turned out to be real. Though others might be headed for the same spot - if they beat him there...

He began to pick up the pace - though he kept it on a leash, last thing he needed was to kick up a dust cloud. As he approached the oasis, he wondered if anyone had beat him there, even with his speed. If they were close enough...nah, even at a full sprint it would be hard to make it there before him, even with a head start. Besides, he thought with a grin, company would certainly make things interesting - especially if they had the right scroll handy.

Roku, Sora, and Touma were gathering water at the oasis. Good think it wasn't a mirage after all, thought Roku. As he capped off his water, he sat back and rested for a moment in the shade. After a few moments he heard a small scuffle near the rocks on his right. Lifting a rock, he saw a fair-sized scorpion. "Ah, geez, little water, hot temperatures, and now we have to deal with these little," Roku let lightning coat his fist before smashing it into the critter, watching it's shell break under his blow like an egg shell, "pests!" He shook his hand to get the scorpion slop off it, then tucked his water away. "Come on, guys, let's go someplace more favorable in terms of climate." He noticed a faint dried riverbed leading away from the oasis. "At least the water will be colder" he said to no one in particular as they ran north.

The Nomuro brothers were sprinting ahead at full speed. Their gate was located in the border with the Spring Area. The place was a forest, but it was much hotter than Konoha,, so they were instintively heading in the direction in which the temperature seemed to be more pleasant. Umiko's keen eyes than met two ninjas far ahead in a small glade. They both stopped sprinting and tried getting nearer without being noticed and ended behind a bush a dozen yards from their enemies, which were completely distracted. Umiko and Mijaro stared at each other and shaked their heads in agreement without saying a single word. They would perform their special combined jutsu.

Umiko removed her gloves and closed her eyes, seeking concentration. Than both started different chains of handsigns. Mijaro shouted "Fire Release: Static Great Fireball" and expelled from the mouth a Huge, static ball of massive fire. Instanly Umiko shouted: "Nomuro's Ultimate Hyperspeed". Suddently she reappeared right above her foes, holding the fireball as if it were a Rasengan. With a handsign and a grin, Mijaro blasted the fireball, destroying everything in a 6 yards base-radius cone below his sister.

Umiko landed startled as she realized that the foes were only bushins. She raised her head to visualize any possible counter-attack, but it came from the soil: two hands came from the earth and grabbed her ankles, sinking her more than nine inches in the compact ground. Three laughting voices echoed in the woods. The first one came from a masked man wearing an oversized dirty coat who raised from the ground between Mijaro and Umiko. The second one came from an orange haired boy at the top of a near tree. The last voice belonged to a tall gennin located at another tree, who keept his eyes closed and shouted "Rock-Paper-Metal". Various scrolls placed at many different trees fired a volley of kunais, stones, metal wires and explosive tags towards Umiko. She screamed in fear and closed her eyes, but something extraordinary happend. Each one of the thousands of projectiles had his trajectory millimetrically calculated in a way that the kunais and stones were binded with the metal wires' extremeties. The wires than tied Umiko completely without hurting her and the explosive notes fell softly over the wires, where they attached themselves.

The tall gennin than looked to Mijaro and said, coldly "Choose: Her life or your scroll".
Mijaro had the Heaven scroll at his hip pouch.

-=-=-

Hiato was jumping from branch to branch in the forest, folowing the direction the Nomuro brothers took. He decided to release one of the Three Bells' seeds that he implanted at Mijaro. The seeds were inert, they would not trigger the genjutsu, but Hiato would be able to detect their location. "Well, they are nearer than I expected, if they stop I can reach them within a minute or two" he thought, a bit more relieved, and than focused his attention in the direction his partners were. Than he heard the sound of an explosion and saw some smoke caused by Mijaro's fireball. His pupils dilated as a wave of worries bashed in his heart. Hiato accelerated his pace.