Saria came awake with a jolt. In the darkness her room was illuminated by the moonlight that streamed through the wall opposite the one her cot rested against. She could see it, suspended in the sky like a silver plate that shone with a brilliance of the ages.

She looked around the room remembering how long it had been.

There was dresser Justicur had made her, not an arms-length away from the foot of the bed. And there, beneath the window, was the table Sakura had given to her as on the anniversary of their arrival. And upon the table sat several vials of water, her most prized possessions. Other than the cot that's all that made up the room.

She slowly remembered the nightmare that had awoken her. She shuddered remembering those eyes. She remembered her friend Tric. It had been a long time since she had seen him. She realized suddenly that something in the room was off, like an impurity in a diamond, small, but still there. She checked the room again finding nothing indicating her feeling of unease. Then she noticed the light on the wall shimmered as it refracted through the vials on the table.

She slipped out of bed, wincing slightly at the shock of her bare feet on the cold floor. She walked over to the table, wrapping the sheets around her. In the moonlight she looked about 16 years old and the silvery light framed her well proportioned body in her nightgown as she walked across the room to the table, wrapped in her bed sheets.

She reached the table and studied the vials. She could see small ripples playing across the surface of the water within them. They tinkled softly, like wind chimes, as they bumped into each other as the table began to shudder.

Saria realized that below the silence that was draped over the village was being slowly disturbed by a dull rumble that shook the foundations of the building, and no doubt the rest of the village. Saria looked over the rooftops towards the city gate but she could see nothing.

A shadow passed over the moon.

Saria looked at the moon that seemed to almost rest above the gate upon the edge of the high wall that encircled Konoha village. She realized that the sky was completely clear.

Another shadow passed over the moon.

Saria watched as a thick, bending, rope-like, shadow passed over the silky shimmering disc in the sky and as she continued to stare at the phenomena she saw many more of the shadows pass over the moon as the rumbling grew louder.

Outside her window she heard shouts. She looked down, seeing the blurs of shinobi as they raced through the city towards the direction of the main gate, the moon, the shadows, and the rumbling.

Saria jumped as someone banged on her door.

"Come on Saria! The Hokage requests our presence immediately!" someone shouted from behind it.

Saria shouted back, recognizing the voice of her 16 year old, almost brotherly, friend, "Just a second!"

The door crashed open as Justicur stumbled in. He wore a long black coat with several buckles down the front of it, starting at his high, wide collar and then running down until it reached his waist. Beneath it Saria could see that he wore a pair of long baggy black pants that had a multitude of similarly black pockets stitched to them. On his feet he wore a pair of black, shoe like sandals that reached up past is ankle under his pants but left the toes exposed. The moonlight reflected off of the 6 inch by about 2 inch metal plate that was attached longwise to the black head band that pushed up and back his medium length spiky black hair. He caught himself, landing lightly on his gloved hands and knee-padded knees.

He looked up and blushed, seeing Saria only in her nightgown with the sheets wrapped around her. He stood up and averted his eyes looking at the ground as he spoke to her, "I think Tric's back."

They both stood in the silvery light of the room, thinking of their friend.

Justicur composed himself and pushed on through the oppression of feelings that now clouded his mind, "The Hokage asked for you, me, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto to meet her on top of the library as soon as possible. He turned around and walked out.

Saria stood, frozen, shocked, could Tric really have come back? Is he back to himself? Or is he still... she tightly shut her eyes, shaking her head, trying to banish the memory of Tric's eyes.

She came back to reality and walked over to the dresser and got dressed slipping into a simple dark blue short sleeved, knee length kimono that was hemed and modified with slits up the side to provide more leg movement and freedom. Beneath that she wore a pair of black skin tight short shorts. Satisfied with her clothes she strapped a pouch to her thigh and a pouch around her waist to her left side. She walked over to the table and selected a few of the vials and slipped them into her pouches and then walked out of the room slipping on a pair of fingerless neoprene gloves and her headband.

When she reached the rooftop the others where already there, Justicur in his outfit, Sasuke in his loose black shirt and shorts and black and white straps that wrapped legs and arms, Sakura with her gloves and in her red kimono which was where Saria got the style for hers, and Naruto in his orange uniform. Tsunade was also there in her loose-fitting garb.

Tsunade was looking off towards the wall where the moon was now halfway hidden behind and was constantly being criss-crossed by the strange shadows.

Tsunade spoke, her voice soft and somber, "I never new your friend, I'm sorry." Justicur and Saria booth hung their heads in silence. The rumbling grew louder.

Saria looked up at Tsunade, "What do we do?"

Tsunade continued to look towards and past the gate where, no doubt, the source of the rumbling was coming from, "I...We need to prevent your friend from getting to the sacred scrolls."

Each of them nodded.

Tsunade turned around and looked at them, she had know Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke for a while now, much longer than she had known Saria or Justicur, but she could see easily that through the close bonds of friendship that had formed between them, all of the other friends, felt Saria and Justicur's pain.

"We must stop him. Saria and Justicur you will be given a chance to see if your friend will join us, but if that fails we will have no choice but to...to...," She couldn't bare to say it to them.

Without looking up Justicur spoke, "Let's just go."

The rest of the group nodded and in a blur of speed they where gone, heading towards the setting, shadowed moon.