The pounding of feet on stone could be heard throughout the dark, dank, corridor. Shadows looming and disappearing as a tall blonde haired man walks past door, after rotting door, his pink haired teammate beside him. He thought back on the mission details.
(Flashback)
"I have a mission for you. One only you two can take. We have found another of Orochimaru's labs. I want you to go check it out, see if you find anything out of the ordinary. It seems to have been abandoned only about a month ago. Do you accept?" Tsunade explained formally. The subject of Orochimaru and his experiment were a touchy subject for all of them.
"Of coarse we do, Baa-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, rather loudly, earning him a whack on the head and an irritated look from his teammate, Sakura.
(Flashback end)
Naruto was brought out of his musings by a small sound. Only he could hear it, of course, with his heightened sense of hearing, but that wasn't what caught his attention. What did, however, was the fact that it sounded like a child crying. "Sakura, I hear something, this way." he beckoned to the pinkette. After several twists and turns, they reached a Large metal door, the soft crying of a child clearly discernable, even to Sakura. Motioning to her to be silent, he pushed on the door, finding it to be surprisingly light. Upon looking inside they were appalled at what they saw. The room was over grown with vines. Searching the room, they found the source of the crying. A small girl, no older than five, was on the ground in front of a large gold chair clutching a stuffed bunny and sobbing quietly. Her knee length curly golden hair splayed around her. She was wearing a red dress with black roses in it, and ripped fishnet stalkings. She had no shoes. "Hello? Are you okay? Did you get lost down here?" Naruto inquired, stepping into the room. At the sound of his voice the little girl stood up protectively in front of the chair, brandishing a kunai.
"If you're here to put those weird hose things on my immouto, I will hurt you! I won't let you hurt her! No more! No more!" The girl shouted, tears streaming from her bright blue eyes by the end of her exclamation.
Sakura, in a desperate attempt to calm the girl, stepped forward gently. "No, honey, we made those bad people go away. But where is your immouto? We might be able to help her." she said softly. Hope gleamed in the girls eyes as she stepped to the side. What they saw next brought tears to their eyes. In the golden chair, there was what looked like a life sized doll of the girl standing beside it. They were obviously identical twins. The only difference between the two was that the one sitting down was slumped froward, the vines that grew everywhere in the room were rapped around her, like they were cradling something precious. It looked like she hadn't moved in AT LEAST several months. Naruto ran up to the girl in the chair and desperately felt for (and silently hoped for) a pulse. He found none. He looked back at Sakura with a sed shake of the head. She gasped and stumbled over to the first girl, picking her up and situating her on her hip. She started to walk out of the room.
"W-W-Where are we going? Why aren't you picking up Ai-chan too? You need to help her! She's gonna die!" the girl started freaking out.
"I'm sorry, Chibi-chan, she's already dead, there's nothing we can do for her now." Naruto said sadly.
"What do you mean dead?! She can't be! You gotta hurry! I can still hear her in my head! It's so soft now, I can hardly hear it! PLEASE! SHE KNOWS WE'RE LEAVING HER! PUT ME DOWN, NOW!" The girl screamed, punching Sakura in the face and running to the other girl, now dubbed Ai, as soon as she touched the ground. "Ai-chan, don't worry, Nii-chan won't leave you. Not now, not ever!" she exclaimed as she kneeled down in front of the chair, placing her hand on Ai's cheek. There was a pause. "What do you mean, 'go with them.'? Don't say that! You sound like you actually WANT to die! You're NOT a lost cause!" Tears sprang up in her blue eyes. "PLEASE! Don't leave me. I promised, remember? I promised I'd find the people mister snake said were our mommy and daddy. Remember?" More tears, and another pause. "Please don't leave. I don't want to be all alone." she begged. The lips of the girl in the chair twitched upwards and her face turned into her sister's palm, however, the movement was so small that the only one to know it happened .besides the two sisters, was Naruto, due to his heightened eyesight, thanks to Kyuubi.
"DEAR KAMI! SAKURA! SHE'S ALIVE! I SAW HER MOVE!" Naruto gasped. Sakura's eyes widened as she rushed forward and checked Ai's pulse. Sure enough, it was there, but it was so small that anyone of lower experience than her, shizune, or Tsunade, would have missed it. Sakura scrambled to get the girl out of the chair and onto the floor. Once this was accomplished, she applied healing chakra to her hands in an attempt to stabilize the girl's condition. Two days of constant running later, and the two of them arrived, exhausted, at the gate of Konohagakure. The two of them rushed past the guards to the hospital. As soon as the two girls were handed off to the nurses, Naruto and Sakura both collapsed, leaving the doctors and nurses in a frantic frenzy until Tsunade arrived.