Hi hi hi! Hello again everyone! I know, shame on me to start a story then disappear for, what 3 years? OMG has it really been that long? I think it has. OK well that's fixed now. My husband bought me an ASUS Transformer Mini for Christmas so I can finally type up all the chapters that I've been writing on paper this whole time. We don't have reliable internet yet but we're planning on getting some come tax time. YAY! So the chapters will be posted sporadically for awhile, bare with me please. So without further ado, here is the revised first chapter of Uncovered. Enjoy!

Horror

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk, filling out more of the endless paperwork that came with being Hokage. He thought he was done with all this and would be able to retire three years ago when he nominated Minato Namikaze to take his place. But the prodigy had sacrificed everything for the village just a few short months after taking the job as leader of Konohagakure.

Urgent footsteps approached outside his office quickly, disrupting his reminiscing. One of the code translators, a nervous, bespectacled woman with frayed blonde hair rushed in, out of breath. Bowing quickly, she held out a scroll to the Kage. The intertwining crescent moons printed on the broken scroll indicated it from Onigakure, a long standing powerful ally with the Leaf village.

"Lord Hokage, an urgent plea just came in from the Village Hidden by Demons. They're under attack by a large force of rogue ninja, without any warning. They request immediate help, high level chunnin and up." The woman twitched as she corrected her thick glasses, obviously out of sorts by the news.

Sarutobi scanned the roll briefly before slamming it on the mahogany wood with a grimace. "Wolf! Tortoise! Raven! Boar! Report!"

Instantly, four members of the Anbu Black Ops materialized in front of the pair.

"You four are to go to Onigakure and provide immediate assistance until I can get together more reinforcements for you. An undetermined number of rogues have attacked our allies in Oni. They've been short-handed and under-manned ever since the Third Great War, losing the majority of their troops. You are my fastest and some of the strongest we have. I have no clue what you're heading into. Now, dismissed!"

And just like that, the team of masked characters vanished with one unified 'Hai'.

The Third rubbed his worn, tired eyes as he stood from his leather chair. Turning to look out at his village, the noon day sun up high, he sighed. "Get me Asuma, Kurenai, and the InoShikaCho trio, ASAP! Along with any high ranking body we can spare!"

It takes the average team two days to get to Onigakure from Konohagakure. The Anbu Hiruzen sent ahead made it in twelve hours. What they discovered was a war zone. Buildings were destroyed, turned into piles of rubble. Fires blazed throughout the medium-sized village. Dead bodies already beginning to decay, shinobi and civilian, man, woman and child, lay in the streets. It was eerily quiet given the destruction that surrounded them.

"All this in one day?" asked Raven.

"It seems so," Wolf turned to the others, "split up to search for survivors. In four hours, regroup here and we'll share our findings and move from there.

In a blur, they spread out in four different directions.

Boar was in what looked like the remains of the village's marketplace. Bodies were scattered all over the area. Large craters and scorch marks scarred the ground. Kunai's and shuriken's were imbedded in almost every surface. Seeing something move out of the corner of his eye, Boar turned to see a small puppy tugging on something that was pinned under a large crate. Walking closer, Boar realized what the dog was pulling on. With mask removed and forgotten, Boar heaved onto the ground at the sight. Short cropped ebony hair rested on the ground before he got up.

The remains of a mother holding a small child, whether it had been a boy or girl couldn't be determined as the young ones head was completely gone. Gruesomely severed below the ear. The woman wasn't any better. Both legs were missing large chunks below the thigh and a gaping hole from a fire jutsu had burned away at her left side. Maggots had already hatched in the meat that had been her intestines. Long black hair was covered in blood and dirt. Her once bright blue eyes were now dull, like a layer of fog over a blue sky.

For Boar, even being a rookie Anbu with a couple years of regular shinobi duty, this was hard to stomach. Nothing had been this gruesome in any of the battle aftermath he'd seen. He had been too young to fight in the last war, and had been ordered into hiding when the Kyubi had attacked. All the kills he had ever committed had been clean, believing that only the worst deserved painful deaths. Definitely not a civilian mother and child.

Saying a quick prayer for their souls and closing the woman's eyes, he thought only one thing as he walked away to continue searching.

'Whoever did this is going to pay. I'll make sure of it.'

Raven opened the door to find yet another classroom, a copy of the other fifteen he'd searched. Blood, body parts, papers, and weapons littered the floor. Desk were now firewood and windows had been turned into glass dust particles that covered all the surfaces.

Sighing, Raven scanned the room for any chakra. And again, found none.

"Did they wipe out the entire village?"

A small pug sniffed the ground, a few meters away from his master. Looking to the Anbu, who was lifting up an overturned wagon full of crushed produce, he gave a small yip to get his attention. Wolf sat down the wagon and walked over to the small canine.

"What is it, Pakkun? Find anything?"

Giving a slight shrug, he sat on his haunches. "Nah, not yet. But maybe one of the others found something."

Wolf looked up towards the moon, high above them, full and beautiful. It was ironic in the most insulting way. All around them, the smell and sight of death and cruelty was a glaring reminder of all the evil this world held. What could have warranted such an attack?

"I'm gonna regroup with the others. You and the rest of the pack keep searching. Howl if you find anything." And with that, he was gone.

Getting up and trotting down the street, Pakkun gave a mumble of agreement to the wind as he too left to inform the pack.

Walking up the large stone steps, an ominous feeling crept down Tortoise's back. The temple was not very welcoming. The clouds in the midnight sky gave the Demonic statues lining the outer walls, a menacing shadow. Previous visits to the lively village replayed in his mind, of the monks that lived inside and took daily care of the temple. The very monks that were in charge of the demon contracts and sealing them away.

That's why this attack was so out of the ordinary. Onigakure wasn't called the Village Hidden by Demons for nothing. Each and every shinobi was given a demon partner at graduation. Either sealed within themselves like the jinchurikki of the tailed beast, or within a weapon of their choosing.

Pushing on the large oak doors, Tortoise scanned for any life.

"Hello? Is anyone alive in here?"

Just when there was a sliver of chakra on the outskirts of the scan, the radio clicked in.

"Tortoise, where are you? It's been four hours."

Pressing a finger against the piece strapped to his neck, he responded. "Sorry, be right there."

With a quick hand sign, he teleported, just missing a small sound from deep in the temple.

The four Anbu stood in a circle in the middle of the crumbling, desecrated village. Raven's hand was up against the chin of his mask, scratching under it. "I don't understand how this could happen. I remember fighting one of their kunoichi in the chunnin exams. Between her and her demon bear, I had to stay on defense almost the entire time. I just lucked out that she had tripped of all things and knocked herself out. And she was supposedly one of their weakest at the exams that year."

Wolf nodded, "Yes, they are quite formidable. It is definitely confusing with everything considered. This is one of the strongest villages and it was wiped out in a matter of hours. I can understand taking out all the shinobi, but why the civilians? From what I could tell, none of them seemed able to defend themselves against their attackers."

Boar shook his head, black hair swishing with the movement. "I think the civilians were used as a warning. Some of the wounds I seen were overkill. Even some were post-mortem. If they wanted to kill civilians, a well-aimed kunai, shuriken or senbon would have easily done the trick."

"Although," Tortoise looked toward the North side of the village where the temple sat against the mountain, "the temple was strangely left untouched."

Wolf's head tilted to the side, mimicking his ninken perfectly, "What?"

"The temple was completely intact, indicting only some cosmetic damage to the first few steps. Bodies of the monks and others are strewn all over the path leading to it and there are signs that point to it possibly being the main objective all along."

Wolf was about to comment when a lone deep howl split through the late night air, coming from North of them.

"That's Bull. Hopefully they found someone alive, or at least a clue to who attacked the village."

They took to the roofs, mindful of the crumbling structures. Landing soundlessly on the ground, they took notice of all eight ninken sitting in front of the temple steps. As the four men scanned the area, they saw that what Tortoise had said was true. The temple was completely intact, with just burn marks on the bottom six steps. There were desecrated bodies of the villagers all over, and just like all the other parts of the village they had searched, not a single enemy body to be found.

A medium-sized tan dog with a white strip down his muzzle, wearing round sunglasses looked at the new arrivals. "Bull sniffed out an adolescent female deep inside the Temple, below ground."

Wolf walked into the middle of his pack and affectionally patted the large Bull Mastiff on the head and scratched behind his ear. "I guess no one else found anything?"

The small pug from before shook his head, "Not anyone alive, but Urushi," he tilted his head to the right, indicating the white and blonde furred dog with wicked eyes, "caught a scent that was off, almost like a snake but it didn't smell right. I even checked it out and couldn't figure it out." He scratched at his neck, "the only good thing was that it seems that may have been where the attack started since it has some of the highest levels of damage and is near the East gate."

Wolf nodded at his dogs, glad they had found something when his team couldn't find much.

"Raven, Boar, you go with Urushi, Akino, Uhoi, and Garuko to check out the scene that Urushi found. Bull and Pakkun will stay with Tortoise and I as we check the Temple." He turned to the last two dogs, "Bisuke. Shiba. The two of you keep searching, maybe we missed something somewhere. Got it everyone?"

Everyone nodded before Boar and Raven took off with their dogs while Bisuke and Shiba split in different directions. The rest walked up the steps and through the jarred doors. The inside was pitch black and musty, the stench of drying blood almost overpowering for the enhanced noses of the canines.

Wolf performed a quick jutsu, producing a large fire dragon that circled the large main hall. It highlighted every crevice, erasing all shadows from the area.

Bull grumbled something to Pakkun, who was resting on his head.

"Bull says the girls scent goes down that small hall to the right. She's injured but not severely."

Tortoise shared a glance with his partner. With a small incline of the head, the four take off down the hall, Bull leading the way. The Temple went deep into the mountain it was carved from. The winding halls made Tortoise wonder how it was that the monks and people of the village were able to remember their way through it. They slowed as they came to a spiraling staircase that went down about three floors. Small torches imbedded in the stone walls came alit as they walked past them. The air at the bottom was stifling. A deep moldy smell that left a bad taste in the mouth lingered in the cavern-like room.

Bull walked over to the far left wall and sat at it, giving a rough 'wuff' over his shoulder to the humans.

"I'm guessing that the young woman is in some safe room on the otherside of the wall." Tortoise stated and walked over to stand next to the pair of dogs. Placing his hands against the cold wall, Tortoise pushed hard against the stone, even using his chakra to add to his strength. Suddenly, his chakra began flowing from his hands into the wall causing glowing lines to appear on the stones. The lines formed a yin-yang symbol that began to spin before a loud 'thunk' echoed throughout the large space.

A section of the wall slid inwards then moved to the right, revealing what looked like a small storage room. Movement from the back caught Tortoise's attention, only to see a barrel slightly wobble.

Which meant that something had to of made it move. Looking down around the floor, smeared, bloody handprints lead from the middle of the room to the back corner. There were scattered, dirty footprints, as if someone had been pacing for a while. Tortoise walked in to the small room, barely ten square feet of space, and over to the back corner.

There, behind the barrel, three sacks of flour and an empty crate was a girl no older than nine years old. Her purple hair was long, sticking out in array in the ponytail it was in. Dry mud and blood was caked into it. Bloodshot, tired blue eyes looked up in defiance even though it was obvious she was shaking in utmost terror. Cuts, scrapes and dark bruises covered her arms and legs. Her purple nightgown torn in places and just as dirty and filthy as the rest of her. Her trembling hands were grasping onto an enormous claymore that was longer than she was tall. And it, too, was smeared with blood and pieces of things that Tortoise hoped she didn't know.

"Hey there," Tortoise spoke softly, reaching over to her. With surprising speed given her state, the girl lifted the sword up in front of her, angling it menacingly at his face.

"Come a-any closer and I-I'll cut your head c-c-clean off..." Admiring her spunk and determination even though it was clear she was exhausted and barely conscious, Tortoise backed away a bit.

"Alright." Lifting his hand, Tortoise removed his masked to reveal his face to her. Black hair was stuck to his face from sweat, though still you could see its bowl shape. His square jaw was fairly defined, though he wasn't too many years older than the girl, in his mid- to late- teens. Dark, bushy eyebrows twitched slightly as he squinted as his eyes adjusted from the removal of his mask. "See, I'm not gonna harm you. We're from Konoha, a messenger hawk came with a request for help. We came in response, promise."

The girl stared up at him, studying his face and body language. After staring for a moment, she lowered the sword back to the ground, her shoulders dropping. "Y-you said we. Wh-who else is w-with you?"

Looking over his shoulder, Tortoise indicated to Wolf and the ninken to come forward. Pakkun was the first to get to the girl as he crawled into her lap. She froze for a moment before wrapping him up in her arms and crushing him to her face.

"Hey now, not so tight please."

She jumped at the unexpected voice coming from the small dog. "Y-you talk?" She took a better look at him, noticing the hiatai tied around his head. "A ninken?"

Wolf came up with Bull and removed his own mask. The mask forgotten on a barrel, Wolf's silver, unruly hair popped up, not even fazed from being held down by the mask for almost a full twenty-four hours. Mix-matched eyes peeped over the top of a black cowl that covered the lower half of his face.

Looking between the two men and down at the two ninken accompanying them, she sat staring for a moment, seeming unsure.

"I-I'm Mishi. Mishi N-Nagano."

Wolf and Tortoise shared a look with one another before both nodding. They were already down the rabbit hole by removing their mask, why not go further?

Tortoise pointed to himself with his thumb, flashing a huge grin and jumping to his full height then striking a very awkward pose that made all the occupants of the small room uncomfortable. "I'm Might Gai, the Handsome Beast of Konohagakure! Master of Taijutsu!" His teeth somehow gleamed in the damp darkness surrounding them. He then turned to Wolf who placated his friend by holding his hands up.

"No offense, Gai, but I do not want you introducing me." He knelt down to Mishi's eye level, smiling so that his eyes crinkled. "Hi, I'm Kakashi Hatake. Now that we're introduced, how about we get out of this gloomy room and get back up to the top floor?"

"Ok."

Pakkun jumped out of her lap and went to the room's opening. "I'll go let the others know and have them meet us."

Mishi's eyebrows bunched up, forming creases on her dirty forehead. "Others?"

Kakashi chuckled, "While we boast that we're the strongest our village has, we still couldn't take on a whole unknown force by ourselves."

When Mishi's face filled with grief and sadness, Kakashi wanted to kick himself in the jewels. Twice. "Hey, it'll be alright. You're safe now."

Mishi wiped tears from her eyes, nodding. Sniffling, she held her sword to herself and stood. "Ok, let's go up."