Tomoya sighed as he looked out upon the desert, wishing for the first time in his life that he had some kind of tracking jutsu. He'd been following these fleeing ninjas for around half a day now, and still there was little more than hearsay and gossip. Still, he had recently found an old man who had given him information as to where to find them. He smiled slightly, thanking the old man for giving him the information he needed. So, they were going to try and flee the country to Iwagakure, eh? He laughed slightly, it was an obvious move to make. They'd be out of the village, and thus they wouldn't be able to be found so easily, plus any sunagakure ninjas trying to enter the land of Earth would be looked upon badly, maybe even starting a war. This was smart thinking on their behalves, but what WASN'T smart thinking was running away from Sunagakure in the first place. Because, that left Tomoya to have to come get them. He pulled his goggles down over his eyes, shielding his eyes from the sand that was being kicked up slightly as he looked up over the dunes. Then, at the very end of his eye-sight he saw four shapes moving very quickly in the opposite direction. He smiled lightly, knowing that there would be no-one else out here that would be in the exact same group number as his targets. Besides, this was in the way he needed to run anyway, so if it by some coincidence DID turn out to not be them, well he could always just apologize and continue running. Now there was nothing stopping him, he started running, moving down and through the dunes with extreme speed, not caring to let himself catch his breath as he continued to run, he needed to get their as soon as humanly possible, before something happened to make the hunt even more awkward. He didn't need any more complications right now.

335/1500

It only took around twenty minutes for him to catch up with them. Strangely enough, they were just walking instead of running, which Tomoya had to admit he was highly thankful for. After all, it made it much, much easier to catch up with them, and seeing as he had had such a huge handicap in finding them, it was good to know that there would be no such problems in catching up with them.... still, something smelt fishy, and he didn't know any salmon venders who worked in the middle of the desert. He had heard that these guys were quite skilled ninjas in their own right, so they should have been able to run, and surely it would make sense to run whilst escaping from an area. Maybe they were overconfident, but he didn't think that these people were overconfident in their abilities or they would have made it a clearer show. It had taken a few days to find out that they'd left the village illegally, by which time Tomoya had been sent out. A part of him had been wondering why he had had the chance to catch up with them before they hit the border since they'd had a few days head start on him, but if they were walking it made a lot more sense to him. Meh, he guessed he didn't need to know exactly why they didn't run, he knew that he had to do his job either way. He was hiding behind a small dune, using his cloak as a bit of camouflage, watching them so that he could see the exact moment that they would make a mistake. Now, it was up to them. They had about three miles until the border, so that meant Tomoya would need to make his move within the next half an hour.

660/1500

There was a small amount of revelry in the group, as all four ninjas were relieved at how close they were to the borders and still no-one had caught them. If they were honest, at least half of them would have to admit that there had been a time when they thought that leaving the village behind like this was a simple dream, nothing more and nothing less. But now? Now they were almost at the border with the land of earth, and once over the border Sunagakure couldn't touch them, they would be free and the best part of it would be that nobody had had to get hurt. Nobody would ever find them again, and they could just blend into normal society, and have peaceful lives. Maybe teach their information to Iwagakure ninjas to earn a little bit of money. Gomu. for one, knew that there was a huge amount of money to be made selling the information that only a ninja from Sunagakure would know to the Iwagakure black ops. Maybe that was how they'd make enough money to retire on? He shook his head, he was sure he could make a lot more money than that, and he'd be a millionaire. There would be nothing that could stop him now, he laughed slightly, knowing that the entire gang's lives were made. Nobody could stop them now, not now they were so close. The village hadn't even noticed they were gone yet. Wait..... He looked behind him, and the rest of the gang stopped, looking at him surprised

"Gomu... something wrong?" Chōhōkei asked, a little concerned. For him to suddenly look out like this, there was something wrong. Was there a huge scorpion beast that was about to come attack the group? Or, he shuddered to think, maybe they hadn't been quite as stealthy as they thought. That would make sense, as he knew for a fact that there would be something chasing them eventually. The other members of the group seemed to be just as worried as he was, to which Gomu just sighed and dropped his cigarette, grinding it under his foot so that it didn't stay alight.
"No.... probably just my imagination, but for a second there I thought I saw a pair of eyes looking at me from one of the sand dunes. I'm probably just being paranoid..." he sighed and turned back
"We should make double time. We'll be safe soon."

1000/1500

Tomoya had thought that his camouflage would have protected him, but when Gomu's eyes met with his he could feel his heart in his throat, as the area started to kick up with wind. Most people would think it was just another one of the tornadoes that was so abundant in this area of the land starting, but little did they know that it was actually the beginning of his wind release. As they turned back, he finally stood up and pulled his cloak back on. One of them, who was still turning back to look the right way saw him and his jaw dropped. Around his neck was the Sunagakure headband, and there was something about Tomoya that made people who got on the wrong side of him usually very scared.
"Umm... Gomu.... I don't think you were paranoid." He said, to which Tomoya clicked his fingers, causing a huge burst of wind to cut through the middle of the group, starting the sandstorm that he was so famous for. He smiled as it wrapped around him, and he threw his cloak off, letting it get caught by the wind, and thrown outside of the storm. He smiled slightly, although he was sure to make no noise. He couldn't let them know which one of them was him.

As of now, there was a huge amount of confusion in the group, as they didn't quite understand what was going on. There was suddenly a sandstorm, it hadn't been that way before. Was this some kind of jutsu? They looked around them, hoping to find the man who was going to attack the group, but there was nothing.... until a whistling sound was heard, and suddenly Dani felt his head being slammed with some kind of ball, he didn't know what it was. But it hurt like hell, and the fact that a moment later a boot kicked him under the chin, knocking him up and rattling his brain, sending him into unconsciousness. He fell back onto his back, compeltely unconscious as Tomoya smiled slightly. One down and three to go. These people called themselves Chunin?

1356/1500

The group were already in disarray, and the fact that a silhouette had just come out of nowhere and seemed to have shattered dani's neck was only making things worse. Suna wasn't just going to drag them back, they were going to kill them! little did they actually know that Tomoya knew how to make the poor fools in just enough disarray that they would pass out, but not enough that it would kill them. The next that went out was Gomu, as his legs were kicked out from underneath him, causing him to fall flat on his ass, before that same whistling noise was heard, slamming into his head, drilling him back into the ground and knocking him unconscious. This was when Tomoya felt a kick slam into his face, damaging his nose. Blood started to trickle down his face as he looked up at the silhouette. By the outline of the man, he assumed it was the one he saw smoking earlier. He smiled as he thought of something. His hands went out and wove a series of handsigns, before his cheeks expanded, letting him spit out some strange invisible gas that was getting spread around by the gale. He smiled as he looked at the man, who apparently hadn't noticed what was going on, and felt his boot pressing against his chest, seemingly pinning him to the floor.

"Any last requests, Suna dog?" He said, in what Tomoya could only guess was an accent from the Abata clan. He smirked slightly, as he said the words that were going to mark the victory of this match.
"Yeah actually... do you mind if I have one last cigarette? But, I don't have my own lighter on me." The man nodded, and crouched down, putting a cigarette in Tomoya's unstruggling mouth, and then clicked on his lighter. Tomoya chuckled slightly, why was everyone so easy to trick?

1678/1500

Tomoya only had time to smile as he poofed into a cloud of smoke, a very bemused lookiing log laying where he used to be. Then, the gas caught alight and the area exploded into a massive fireball, roasting them alive. They could barely deal with the heat, and it was almost killing them. Tomoya's attack had been completely efficient, and the sandstorm had only managed to spread it out further and make it even worse. The man himself arrived outside of the field of wind, the area that was safe, and just looked at the fireball happily. Inside it was all four of his opponents, just making sure that he was able to finish them all of easily. He smiled, but then sighed. He really wished he could have killed them, they had betrayed everything that he believed in. Still, rules were rules and as the fire died away, he summoned two more balls of wind, throwing them forwards as he slammed his fists forwards, shooting off quickly towards the badly hurt men, hitting them both in the middle of the forehead, sending them flying backwards, lying unconscious on the sand. Walking into the sandstorm, he grabbed their hands and pulled them with him, taking them one by one out of the storm, and checking their pulses. They were all unconscious, but the pulses were clearly there. They'd have to be taken home, but as for now.... he stomped on their legs one after one, shattering their limbs so that they couldn't run, and moved off towards where he'd come from. The retrieval team would be here in a matter of hours, and they'd sleep till then. Hell, even if they didn't, they wouldn't make three miles on rough sand with broken legs. He smiled,this had truly been child's play.