"Mieko?!" Temari heard Yami yell incredously from where she and Shikamaru sat eating thier lunch.  Shooting a questioning glance at Neji, he shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'I don't know, Yami's too distracted to be bothered with us at the moment.' Immediately, Temari's questioning glare turned to Shikamaru.  The only response he gave was a grin that told Temari he was almost expecting this to happen. Frustrated, Temari growled, "You think this is funny Shika?"

Yami heard Temari's growled question, and knew Temari was calling him Shika to try and goad him, but was too distracted and amazed at the sight of Yaouri's old best friend.  At least, that's who her mother had always told her the girl in that particular picture was.  Looking around further, Yami started to recognize some of her surroundings from other pictures they'd brought with them to Konoha. "This is the village we moved from!" Yami cried in a strangled whisper.  Almost as an after thought, Yami relayed this same sentence to Neji and Hinata through her chakra.  After all, Mieko had inturrupted their noon report.

"That's good information for us Yami, do you remember anything else?" Hinata had translated for Gaara and Sakura what had been said and, at Gaara's signal, was trying to coax more information out of the girl.  Hinata kept her focus on Yami, but also watched this stranger who had entered their midst, eyeing the girl Yami had called Mieko with distrust.

"I'm sorry," Mieko finally stopped staring at Yami. "How rude of me to inturrupt your travels without so much as introducing myself. Just... that girl there looks so much like my old friend Yaouri." Tears came involuntarily to Mieko's eyes as she went on, "My best friend."  Wiping her tears furiously from her eyes, Mieko straightened out, holding herself high. "I am Mieko, as I'm guessing you're Yaouri's little sister?" - a quick nod from Yami - "Has so convieniently pointed out to the entire forrest, you ARE just passing through, right?  I saw another group pass through here this morning, but they were rather slow about it." Mieko said this last part with a barely concealed growl.

"We're just passing through Mieko, don't worry." Yami responded quickly at first, then hesitantly added, "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Mieko eyed Yami warily, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends here?"

Startled, Yami quickly responded, "Itchi's been badly hurt, and we could all use a good night's rest..." Yami paused to gauge Mieko's reaction to this request, and, upon seeing none, went on, "The group you saw this morning are traveling with us, past the Hidden village of the Mist.  Here, I'm Yami, Kankaro over there is the one you should really be adressing, he's kind of the leader of this little group. After him, we have Ino, who has become my mentor, and Tenten." Yami pointed each person out as she said their name, apprehension growing as Mieko still failed to show any sign of hearing her, with the exeption of a slight nod to the person she was being introduced to, so as not to be rude.

Finally, Yami couldn't take it anymore. "Mieko?" She asked timidly, "Is it possible that we could rest here awhile?  One of our other comrades traveling with us has a sore neck, he's with the group that passed here this morning."

This finally brought Mieko back to the present situation. "Sorry Nekozumi.  I was thinking.  Let me go back to the village and check with our new  vets" Mieko spat the words out like they were vile, "and our medcics to see if they'll accept you.  I've got a feeling you've got some explaining to do anyway."  With that, Mieko disappeared into the shadows.

"All right Yami" Temari's voice broke into her thoughts, "Neji tells me this person is gone.  What can you tell us about her?" Startled, Yami slowly explained what had transpired and what Mieko was going to do.  She heard Shikamaru and Sakura simultaneously breathe sighs of relief at the thought of a night where they wouldn't be in danger.

"I guess it's all up to Mieko now." Yami sighed, both worried that Mieko would deny their request and relieved to be in a somewhat familiar location.  While they waited for Mieko to return with their answer, Yami tried to explain to all three groups everything she knew about the village hidden in the shadows.

"So...  the village gets its name from the long shadows the town is known for? Most of the buildings are hidden in them, and ...it's almost like an entire village made of the Naara clan?" Choji teased Shikamaru while digesting the information he'd received via Neji from Yami. "Most of this village uses shadow-jutsu like Shikamaru and his family does..."

Yami tried to remember but she and Yabelizy had moved when they were only two so she didn't know much.  Her parents had kept the village's secrets mainly hidden, even from their own children, for the safety of not only the village, but for their family's safety as well.

It was while Hinata was relaying this message that she saw several people coming toward Kankaro's group. "Yami?" Hinata and Neji both started at the same time. Yami picked Hinata to go first. "Just thought you should know, there's a pretty large group of people coming toward you guys from the same direction Mieko disappeared from."

Yami quickly relayed the message, then heard both speaking again.  Telling them to quiet down, Yami rapidly explained that she hadn't trained herself to listen to both voices at the same time.

"Well, their chakra doesn't seem to hold any mal intent, but we thought you should know." Neji quickly interjected before Hinata or Yami could say anything else.

"Mieko!" Yami called cordially out and stepped anxiously toward the group. "You went and brought us a welcoming party, how nice!" Yami quickly asked Hinata to have GHaNS stay just outside the village walls while the other two groups went in.

Hinata, after checking with Gaara and Sakura, agreed to do just that and watched the group from the village hidden in the shadows with watchful eyes, waiting to see what they were going to do.

As the group Mieko was leadinng got to where Yami was greeting them, they stopped in surprise. "How?" Mieko asked somewhat timidly, anger gathering in her voice, "How did you know I was coming back with more than just me?"

"Go ahead and tell her about the Byakugen, but only Neji's! Quickly!" Shikamaru instructed hurridly.

"Don't let anybody know that Hinata's here." Neji added in a low growled warning only audible to Yami's super-sensitive hearing. "I'm responsible for anything that happens to her while we're on a mission anywhere near the same vicinity.  I don't want to have to protect her here where she should be protecting her teammates."

Surprised by the intensity of the three reactions, Yami responed, "I told you about the other group, right?  The one that has the medical problem?  With this group, there is one Hyuunga Neji." Yami stopped speaking as this piece of information was absorbed by the group, whom, Yami now noticed, were not all ninjas.

"Hyuga?  The ones with the Byukagens?" Mieko finally voiced what the others were softly wondering amoungst themselves, though Mieko knew it was unnecessary to tell Yami that, "and why is there a Sand ninja traveling with ninjas from the Leaf?" she added, pointing at Kankaro.

At this last question from Mieko, Yami's chakra writing was barely readable, so great was her excited confusion.

"CALM DOWN!" Neji fairly roared, or so it seemed to Yami.  After Yami had calmed a little, Neji continued, "Sorry, I couldn't read what you were saying before.  Why do we have Sand ninjas traveling with us?" Neji looked doubtfully at Temari and Shikamaru, who had just ended their meal at the same time.  Temari shrugged and looked at Shikamaru, as did Choji, for an answer to that particular question.