-Sorry for the delayed update.

-Looking back at my previous chapters, I spotted numerous unbelievable mistakes, such as weird grammars, strange sentence structures, typos, and even downright stupid ones like missing words and sentences! I feel like hitting myself with a hammer right now…

-I changed the summary and the clickable title for this story on this site. I'll stick with them from now on.

-For the question asked by Serenarey Chiba, this story will primarily focus on the development of Naruto and Sakura, and not the new Team Five. The other Rookie Nine will have their significant share of the spotlight too, as well as the usual folks such as Kakashi, Sai, and the rest of the gang.

-For anyone else, if you feel like you want to ask some questions about this story, feel free to do so. I'll try my best of my abilities to answer them all.

-Thank you to all that have read, reviewed, and/or put my story in their favorite and/or alert list. If you are willing to give some of your time to spare some comments or reviews for this chapter as well, or any of other chapters for you who haven't done it yet, it'd be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

Pizza Blade


A Fan-Fiction based on the popular Manga/Anime Naruto

Created and owned by Masashi Kishimoto

Into the Future…

Written and directed by Pizza Blade

Special honorary thanks to all of my readers and reviewers

Fourth Episode


"Oh, the comfortthe inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a personhaving neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away." –Dinah Craik


-The Path to Sand

It was night.

The moon sat on the skies, lending its soft glow to illuminate the earth below, giving light to help those who had no choice but to stay at the land of the dark. The sky was majestically beautiful—it was filled with innumerable amount of glistering stars, all presenting their captivating auras in a subtle yet very striking way, creating a sight of a fairytale to those lucky enough to set their eyes on them.

It was inside the forest that served as the path from Leaf to Sand.

The forest was even darker than the night itself, because hundreds upon hundreds of leafs on top many huge trees formed a barricade that wouldn't give permission to the ground below them to experience the full beauty of the stars on the heavens. Some of the moon's lights managed to break through them, however, and although they didn't do much to illuminate the forest grounds, their soft radiance in contrast to the seemingly endless darkness that surrounded them provided a surreally mesmerizing sight.

Inside the forest, a flicker of campfire danced quietly inside the ever enveloping dark. A closer look to it, and one could see three people around it—three Ninjas from the Hidden Village of Konoha that stayed on a night's rest not only in order to soothe their wary legs after trekking the forest for days, but also to prepare themselves fully for whatever trials and tribulations time would present to them tomorrow.

The dancing flame created a reflection on the eyes of a particular young Jounin who, unlike the rest of his team-mates, has not yet delivered himself to the lands of dreams. Instead, he kept his eyes opened, while his mind flew to faraway places in a faraway time… places only he could tell… time only he could remember…

Naruto sat quietly on the ground next to the campfire.

…The moon might shone its brightest light yet, and the glitter of the stars may have been the most beautiful present the night sky ever gave to fortunate eyes, but Naruto didn't pay any attention to any of them. He didn't set his eyes to them. He chose to ignore them although the view was clearly breathtaking… and in many ways, even tempting.

No.

His eyes were gazing onto something else. Something else that was more mesmerizing. Something else that was more captivating for him compared to even the most beautiful things in the whole world. Something else that managed to create a stir in his heart more powerful than any other things in the world combined.

…He was gazing at Sakura.

The pink-haired Kunoichi slept peacefully inside her sleeping bag, right across the location where Naruto chose to sit. She was beautiful. The subtle light of the moon that managed to graze her face strengthened that sentiment wonderfully, making her like a part of a fairy-tale book sprung to life, her beauty unmistakable. Usually, when she was awake, she was a focused young woman, energetic, positive, and oftentimes even inspiring. Right now, however, she looked so peaceful…

The sight of her sleeping so serenely like that under the touch of subtle light from the moon during a night like this was so surreally enchanting for Naruto he could no longer spare his eyes for anything else other than her… It was like the world other than him and the sight of Sakura in front of her was gone. It was like nothing else really mattered anymore. It was like nothing else really important any longer…

…Naruto felt so strongly compelled to get up to his feet and approach her. He felt so strongly compelled to sit right next to her sleeping face, and moved his hands to softly caress that beautiful pink hair of her… The hair that was gently swayed by tender night wind that passed through the forest…

…Yet he knew that he couldn't do that.

He knew that no matter how hard he wanted to be that close to her right now, he just couldn't do it. He knew for the longest of time that he had irreplaceable feelings for her, feelings that were so strong that it even possibly outgrew the capacity of word love itself. He knew for the absolute certainty that he loved her. And he was sure that, in more ways than one, she knew he loved her too. Yet for some reason, their relationship, even after all these years, couldn't get any closer than that of a close compatriots and friends.

It's like there's an immeasurable wall erected between them two. An immeasurable, invisible wall of which Naruto that stood on one of its side could clearly see Sakura that stood on the other side. He could see her very closely at that other side of the wall as if they were apart only by the tiniest of distance… he could gaze at her for an eternity without even blinking for a second…

Yet at the same time he knew that he couldn't reach his hands to her. No matter how strong he wanted to grab her into his arms and hug her forever inside, he knew he couldn't do it. Not with that invisible wall still erected between them both. A wall that was made because of the memories of a person… and a lifelong promise Naruto made to her a long time ago that he still, up to this day and very second, yet able to fulfill. A promise to bring back a man he still considered his friend; a man he knew the girl he loved once loved…

…As long as he's still unable to carry out that promise—a promise that was made not only because he wanted to reclaim his lost friend but also more importantly, to make those beautiful lips of her to smile in happiness—that wall between him and her would always be there, unmerciful to his feelings, unmerciful to his desire. There would always be a void between them two, a void that could not be filled with any other thing in the entire world besides the fulfillment of that promise…

"Urgh…!"

Naruto suddenly gasped quietly in pain as he put his right palm in front of his mouth, covering it. He coughed a little, carefully manipulating his voice so that it wouldn't wake Sakura or Sai, who was asleep not to far from where he sat.

He continuously committed short burst coughs for a little while, before they finally ended. His chest thumped erroneously as he tried fervently to stabilize his breathing. The sudden pain that just jumped without warning before gradually subsided, and in end it didn't take long for Naruto to be able to calm himself back again.

His right hand was involuntarily trembling slightly, but it didn't faze him. Instead of paying any attention to the slight tremble, he gazed intently to the palm of his right hand that he used to cover his mouth earlier.

…What was there on the surface of his right palm sent a clear message to him. A message that made even him, as one of the most experienced Ninja in Konoha, quiver slightly due to sudden irrepressible emotion caused by it.

He grazed the ground with his left palm deliberately and repeatedly. Then, he used his left palm that was filled with dirt and soil from the ground to rub his right palm strongly. Clearly, whatever it was he witnessed there just before, he didn't want to entertain the possibility of anyone else seeing it as well.

He continued to rub both of his palms together for quite a while. He took a good look once more to the surface of his right palm to ensure everything was appropriate, and when he's satisfied, he inhaled a long, deep, breath.

Damn… he muttered quietly inside his mind, his face looked slightly flinching as he exhaled his breath deliberately.

He gave Sakura one final glance, and mouthed off a soft whisper of "Good night, Sakura-chan" before he slowly laid his back on his own sleeping bag, face facing up to the skies, and closed his eyes with the view of the curtains of stars as the last thing he allowed his emerald-blue eyes to see……


The dancing flame created a reflection on the eyes of a particular young Jounin who, unlike the rest of her team-mates, suddenly found herself awoke from the lands of dreams. Now, she kept her eyes opened, while her mind flew to faraway places in a faraway time… places only she could tell… time only she could remember…

Sakura sat quietly on the ground next to the campfire.

For some strange reason, a while ago she suddenly without warning awoke in the middle of her sleep. She usually didn't experience that kind of thing. She was always able to awake on whatever time she planned on awaking before she went to sleep, but she very rarely ever get disrupted in the middle of her sleep like that— except, of course, for situations of dire emergencies, but now she's clearly not in one of those situations.

She was sleeping with her other team-mates, in order to rest themselves up for the resuming of their journey to the Sand the very first thing tomorrow morning. True, they were attacked just earlier, but she didn't feel like those attackers would dare to return for another attempt at them. And it's not because she felt uneasy about the mission they'd about to undertake in the Sand either.

So then, what was the reason for her sudden awake?

…She didn't know for sure. At first, it felt like she's being watched by someone, being watched very closely, very carefully. Yet, when she got up, she found that Naruto and Sai were both already asleep in their own respective sleeping bags, and aside from obvious sounds made by nocturnal animals all around them, she didn't sense any signs of living creatures nearby that could possibly give her a sensation of getting watched.

Although… for some strange reason as well, she didn't feel like she was in any kind of danger at all. In fact, for reasons she couldn't understand, she felt like although she sensed before that she's being watched by someone, she didn't get alarmed by it like when she was watched by an enemy. Instead, she felt strangely safe and calm…… like she knew that someone would always watching her and would do anything to ensure her safety…

…The moon might shone its brightest light yet, and the glitter of the stars may have been the most beautiful present the night sky ever gave to fortunate eyes, but Sakura didn't pay any attention to any of them. She didn't set his eyes to them. She chose to ignore them although the view was clearly breathtaking… and in many ways, even tempting.

No. Instead of providing those magnificent views with fractions of her attention, she decided to give it all onto a sight that, for some reason, managed to stir a peaceful, calming sensation inside her heart. It was a sight so simple, yet at the same time so captivating, that she found herself oddly unable to break her eyes off from it, and even feeling content to just sit there and did nothing except to just stare at it.

…She was gazing at Naruto.

The blonde-haired Ninja slept in his sleeping bag, right across the location where Sakura sat. The sight of him sleeping so serenely and peacefully like that was, in all of its simplicity, something truly special. It was so contrast to his usual self, the usual Naruto that was always so energetic and cheerful, with happy-go-lucky demeanors and that contagious never-give-up-no-matter-what attitude that he always exhibited in each and every seconds of his waking moment.

The quiet and solemn atmosphere around the campsite provoked Sakura to dwell in her thoughts—thoughts about her, about Naruto, about their relationships, and about how things have changed so many together along with the passing of time…

All things changed. She realized that. The only thing possible to stay in constant, unperturbed by the mechanics of time progression was none other than the change itself. She herself has changed. She didn't actually write any notes about the things about her that changed during the course of time, but she's sure to the fact that she has changed. She felt more focused. She felt more accomplished. She felt that she has transformed into a competent individual, a confident Kunoichi that would never have any second thoughts or hesitation to challenge whatever tribulations Fate has in store for her head-on, with her head held high.

She didn't use to be like this. She used to be a person only depending on others to do the dirty job, only watching from behind while others bravely marched forward. But now, that part of her was no longer exist except in some distant memories. And when she gave it a thought, although her transformation happened because of many things and many people, it was first and foremost propelled forward because of this one single blonde Ninja that was asleep in front of her right now.

…Speaking about which…

Naruto has changed as well…

People used to detest him, considered him abomination, all because of one thing that he never had any choice to begin with—the fearsome Demon Fox Kyuubi that was sealed inside himself. Most probably he viewed it as a curse, and it's not without good reason: she knew all too well that although Kyuubi sometimes acted as a failsafe when Naruto was plunged into some sort of a mortal danger, it was because of that demon as well that Naruto's life filled with situations that would make many scream in insanity and frustration.

But he didn't give up. He never did. Always getting thrust countless times into dangerous and life-threatening—and oftentimes even seemed helpless situations, he always emerged. Somehow, someway, he always found a way to claw himself back up to the surface no matter how deep the hole he fell into. It was precisely because of this determination of his that he managed to slowly, but surely, grew the list of people willing to put their trusts, and even their very lives, in his hands. Sakura would undoubtedly be at the top of that list, for sure. Of course, people who would never want to look past his relationship with Kyuubi no matter what would always still exist, but he outgrew them. If one could pinpoint the greatest of changes that happened to Naruto compared to his old self, it was probably that the current Naruto always seemed…for the lack of a better word… content.

Things changed, she realized it, and although she also realized that it was nothing more but just wishful thinking, she really wished some things would always stay the same, no matter what. Things that she already so used to in a way, that to have them in any other way would force her to dwell in uneasiness, in awkwardness, in discomfort.

Her relationship with Naruto, for one, would undoubtedly rest as one of the most important of those things. She wished things between them would never change. How Naruto would always joke around when he stood near her, how he would always act so cheerful around her, yet at the same time so dependable when things turned for the worst. How she could just talk freely around him, how she would always be the 'gatekeeper' for Naruto so that he wouldn't act so foolhardy all the time, how she could oftentimes just laughed to all the pranks and jokes and the overall behavior of the blonde Ninja…

She liked that. In fact, she liked it so much it has become one of the most awaited refugees from all of her busy schedules and life. When she was still a Genin and a Chuunin, she was always together with Naruto in missions that she ended up taking his companionship for granted… but when they each became Jounins, times when they could be with each other together were reduced significantly, since each of them had their own businesses and missions to attend to. Now that she gave it a thought, she oftentimes missed those Genin and Chuunin moments… so much so in fact that the most significant reason of her accepting this mission to the Sand was so that she could spend some time together with her old-teammates, most particularly Naruto...

If only things could just stay the same no matter what.

But she knew, perhaps instinctively, that would not be the case. Naruto was still his usual self nowadays—every time he met her, he would always seem so cheerful, shot lame but nevertheless amusing jokes to her, and overall act like he always did just like the usual Naruto. But she could see it. She could see through it.

…She could see that Naruto has changed. The way he acted towards her nowadays has somewhat changed. He would still crack his usual lame jokes when he met her, that's for sure, and sometimes she would still laugh at them, but there's something about the way he acted towards her nowadays that's just… different, somehow. If she could explain it in words, it was most probably that he acted… somewhat reserved. It's like he kept his distance from her for some reason… like he was willing to be close to her but couldn't, or unwilling to move further inside… Although she would always think that it was just the burden of his status as a Jounin that mostly caused it to happen, what distraught her the most that his sudden change of behavior grew even more and more obvious with the passing of time, and it would seem that he acted that way only when he got together with her.

…Yesterday, she was a bit troubled to the fact that despite he got injuries in his mission, he didn't come directly to her for treatment. The old Naruto would never do that. The old Naruto would always come to her every time he needed any kind of medical treatment, no matter what the circumstances were. But he didn't do it yesterday.

Perhaps it was nothing. Perhaps it was no more than just a coincidence that he didn't have the time to meet her to treat his wounds, for whatever reason. But she got the most peculiar of feelings that it wasn't because of a reason as simple as that that he chose not to go to her to treat his wounds yesterday. She felt like Naruto was hiding something from her… and it was upsetting to her that he's still unwilling to share it with her despite the closeness of their relationship. Like he didn't want her to get involved in his own problems no matter how much she actually wanted to help.

She was afraid.

She was afraid that his sudden change of behavior was the first sign of him finally feeling fed up with her, and that would let his decision to move away from her. Him being fed up about the state of their relationship, him being fed up that she continuously and deliberately always seemed to choose not to move their relationship further than that of a very close camaraderie and friendship.

…She knew about his feelings for her, of course. It was as clear as the sun that shone brilliantly on a bright day. He always showed his fondness of her ever since they started out as a Genin, and that feeling continued to blossom and develop during all their times together… during all the trials, hardships, and tribulations the two of them faced together side by side. She knew all too well about all the things that he had done for her—all the things that he sacrificed just for her sake. Of course, Naruto was one of those exceptional persons who would never hesitate to do even the greatest of things for the sake of his friends, but she always felt like the things he did for her in particular always seemed so special, in a way. She knew he loved her, and most probably would unable to love anyone else other than her…

…And yet…

…She wasn't really sure what she needed to answer if, by some chance, Naruto one day asked for confirmation about what her feelings for him would be. Naruto was a selfless person, and thus he never before asked her directly about her feelings to him, most probably for fear that it would invoke unpleasant memories about…… about a certain person, a certain person somewhere out there. The fact that Naruto never asked her that question was a thing that made her grateful, because she's afraid that even if she tried to answer that hypothetical question, she wouldn't be able to and in the end would just disappoint and sadden him further.

It felt like all these times he seemed already content without feeling the need to request a definitive answer from her about the state of their relationship.

But no matter how patient someone could become, she knew each person got their own breaking points somewhere along the line. She's afraid that Naruto would become sick for allowing himself to be filled with unrequited feelings for so long, feelings he couldn't disperse forcefully and yet unable to fulfill. She knew all too well how painful the feeling of having an unrequited love could be… since she once had that same feeling too, many years ago, a feeling she dedicated to a certain person

…She didn't have the same feeling again now for sure…… or at the very least she thought that she didn't have it anymore…

…Truthfully, she didn't know what to say or do if, by some chance, someday he returned to the Village. She wasn't entirely sure what her feelings would be. Some might say she should be like this, and some might say she should be like that, but emotions were something much more complicated than that… one just couldn't simply follow some arbitrary "rules" about emotions because there're simply no rules about it—no textbook, no manual, no guidelines about them. Thus, because of it, she couldn't answer the question yet. She couldn't answer it truthfully before she could sort out her own feelings towards that certain person

Perhaps then, when she's able to accomplish that, she could answer Naruto's unspoken expectations towards her with the utmost confidence in her voice… without fear… without hesitation.

Sakura sighed.

Pathetic, she thought to himself exasperatedly. After all these years, after all that's happened, and you still can't make up your mind

"Anyway, stupid girl," she said quietly to herself, "Let's just focus on the mission at hand first. You can think nonsense all you want after this mission is over… And besides…"

For a moment, she got lost once again in her thoughts, apparently thinking about something.

"It can wait, at least for now, I hope…" she finally murmured, "…I'll ask Kakashi-Sensei myself about it when we get back…"

She gazed once again to Naruto, his adorably peaceful sleeping face gave a comfortable stir inside her heart.

"Good night, Naruto," she whispered quietly.

She leaned back on her sleeping bag, and she let the view of the glittering stars to become the last thing she saw before she closed her eyes and entered to the blissful world of dreams.


-Somewhere Out There

It was night. The surrounding area inside the forest was pitch black, with only a handful of light managed to break through the fortress of leafs constructed by hundreds of towering trees that soar to the heavens. Because of the darkness, normally it would be an exceptionally difficult and tremendous task to navigate through the forest efficiently—if just walking around would be a difficult task, one could only imagine the difficulty of having to jump from tree to tree at very high speed when even the smallest of mishap could turn ugly.

However, four shadowy figures did just that. They jumped from tree to tree in such a speed their movements were almost a blur. They were able to do that quite flawlessly too, regardless to the fact that the situation only allowed very poor visibility. Obviously, not only those four were far for ordinary people, they have also traversed through this area often enough to know the terrain even with their eyes closed.

"So!" one of those four figures—a young lady with an unruly short reddish hair—claimed as she stepped on a tree branch masterfully before jumping on to the next.

"So what?" said her speaking partner, a young man that looked apparently not too far from her in terms of age. Behind them, there're also two other people, jumping trees together in unison, side by side—their expression looked very stoic and indifferent to their surroundings it's almost eerie.

"What do you think about those Jounins you stalked?" the young lady asked again, "Well, I suppose I shouldn't really ask since you practically ran away from them, but humor me, please."

She laughed a little.

"It's not funny, you know," the young man looked annoyed, "I almost got myself capped in two back then. Damn that blonde Jounin. I've never seen anyone so recklessly dangerous like him. What's his name? Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Yeah, that's his name," she nodded, "…Was it really that impressive, though? That Jutsu of his?"

"Enough to scare the crap out of me, that's for sure," he replied straight-forwardly, "Although, that's not to say that I wouldn't be able to figure out its one or two weaknesses, for sure. Oh, I guess it's also worth mentioning that I thought it was him also that managed to detect me and my boys following them back then—he got some very sharp senses, to be sure… it was quite impressive."

"Hmm…" the young girl mused, "What about the Kunoichi?"

"As about Haruno Sakura-san, I didn't actually see her do much, but from what I could tell…" he made some exaggerated hand gestures, "She possessed a truly incredible strength coupled with what I could only say as exceptional chakra control, at the very least."

"Incredible strength?" she appeared somewhat surprised to hear it.

"Yup," he nodded, "A saw her hit a large branch. It wasn't just destroyed to pieces—it practically disintegrated to dust. You couldn't do that without delivering an especially powerful and concentrated strike, and in order to be able to commit such attack, you need to be able to mold your chakra control into near perfection. I am not even sure either you or me could perform a trick like that as flawless as her. If her punch ever connects with us even in the slightest, say good-bye to the world, my friend."

"Hoh…" the young lady muttered—she seemed somewhat interested.

"I asked around in the Village too…" the young mad added, "Looks like all the talk about her being the best Medical Ninjutsu specialist around wasn't just a rumor after all. Well, I suppose it's a given since she's very good with her chakra control. And one more thing that makes her even more awesome…"

"…What?" the young lady wasn't entirely sure it would be the best course of action to ask, since her talking opponent flashed a rather annoying-looking grin on his face.

"…She's gorgeous, man!" he gave her thumbs up.

She sighed exasperatedly.

"What about the other one?" she immediately asked him before he could blabber any further about his newfound idol, "There were three, right?"

"Oh… right," he said, thinking, "I didn't see him do anything at all, so I am not sure. …Although, he looked very calm during the entire ordeal back then. Almost eerily calm, even. Well, he's on the same team as Uzumaki and Haruno-san, so I suppose he should be a pretty tough Ninja as well."

-Swooshh-

Without even looking to his front while evading a near-miss large branch coming to his face, the young man asked to his companion,

"So what about you?" he asked, "How's Konoha Sixth Hokage?"

"Oh he's great alright," the young lady smiled, "One look at him and you could immediately tell what kind of person he is. He's strong. He actually managed to detect me although I did my best to hide my presence from him."

"Seriously?" the young man looked a bit surprised, "He was able to detect you even with your specialized Jutsu? Well that was unexpected!"

"Yup," she nodded gleefully—for some reason, the fact that Kakashi was able to detect her spurred her to smile instead of worry, "Not just that, he's incredibly fast too—perhaps even faster compared to our Leader. I managed to escape him just barely. Also, his usual self is already very strong, and when you counted in the fact that he has…"

She pointed a finger to her left eye.

"Oh…" the young man looked excited, "So it's true, then. That there're actually two Sharingan users left in this world. One is the man that our Leader is after, and the other one is Konoha's Sixth Hokage…… very interesting. I wish I could see it just once. I want to fight one of the Sharingan users just once, to actually see with my own eyes just how strong they really are."

"I don't know about the man our Leader is after…" the young lady gave a thought as she gazed to him, "But I'm not sure that even you will be capable of standing on the same ground as the Hokage in a fair fight… defeating him may prove to be a too much difficult task for you to handle."

"Hm…" the expression on his face didn't change at all regardless of her assessment, "How about you then? Do you think you have what it takes to best him?"

The young lady didn't say anything to that question. The only answer she gave to him was an unfathomable expression on her face. She looked somewhat serious, though, and the young man somehow had no more inclination to pursue the matter further.

They continued to jump from trees to trees amidst the pitch black surrounding for a while, before the young girl all of a sudden raised her left hand, making the entire group immediately stopped their movements at the same time.

"Wait!" she said swiftly, "We're here."

She jumped to the ground down below, with the rest of the group followed her movements.

She gazed at her front—it was a peculiar thing to do since nothing was there on the direction of her eyes except for what seemed to be hundreds upon hundreds of towering trees shrouded in darkness.

"Is this it?" said the young man that landed right next to her, "I hate this kind of thing, you know. It makes the task of finding our own secret base a pain in the highest degree. I always missed it. I doubt anyone would ever visit this part of the world, anyway."

"It's just for precaution," the young lady answered evenly as she raised both of her hands to her chest, "We're not affiliated with any of the countries in the world. In fact, you could say that our existence most probably is something that no countries in this world would approve. If they ever managed to find our base, there's no telling what they would do to our group. We can't be too careful."

"Yeah, I suppose," the young man scratched his hair, "Anyway, hurry up and dispel the barrier, will you? We need to see Leader immediately to report our infiltration to Konoha… I hope he's not going to be too upset with us going there on our own."

"Don't worry… he won't," she replied coolly, "Not after hearing what we have to say."

She chanted something as her hands made multiple hand-seals. Then, all of a sudden she kneeled as she thrust both her palms on the ground, making a distinct 'thud' sound as they made contact.

-RRrrrRR-

In what could only be described as an unbelievable spectacle, the towering trees in front of them suddenly started to shake like their roots were disturbed by a very powerful earthquake. They then dissolved, disappeared gradually in a slow motion one by one. It was truly a bewildering sight. Even stranger was the fact that the disappearance of numerous towering trees in front of those four didn't cause any sort of noise whatsoever, like someone mysteriously flicked the volume button all the way down.

When all has been done, what stood in front of the group of four were no longer the trees of the forest. In their places, now spread a rather large field, with what would appear to be an entrance to an underground cave located at its center. Other than this truly strange sight, the forest all around it seemed unchanged, and even the inhabitants of the forest did not seem disturbed by the sudden presence of the mysterious cave.

"Hufh…" the young lady stood back up. She looked somewhat tired as she tried to normalize her breathing that has accelerated slightly.

"Are you alright?" the young man asked, "Dispelling such a huge and elaborate Genjutsu is such a tiresome thing to do, isn't it?"

"I'm fine," she waved her hand dismissively, "Anyway, more importantly, let's go now, before some stupid Ninja wander around here and witness the entrance while the Genjutsu is dispelled."

"You two," the young man glanced to the other two on their group who so far haven't even spoken a single word yet, "Thank you for your help. Now, return to me. Return to where you belong."

The other two nodded their head slightly, and then something not less spectacular than the sight of numerous towering trees suddenly disappeared happened. They twitched—at first only slightly, and then gradually became faster, faster, and faster. They twitched crazily like they were being pulled with strings by numerous people from all directions consecutively—it was a very eerie sight. Then, like someone just snapped his fingers, they stopped abruptly.

They opened their mouths, and from there came out two very sticky, very disgusting looking blackish slimes, like they were crawling from their insides to the outside. The revolting slimes slid down from the corners of their mouths to their neck, their chest, their stomach, their legs, onto the ground. Those two suddenly fell to the ground, their eyes turned black, and then in a strange twist of events, their bodies started to disintegrate to dust… reduced to nothingness in a matter of seconds.

The slimes then slid their way through the ground to the direction of the young man who, for some reason, looked positively delighted watching their movements.

The slimes, once they have reached the young man's leg, crawled upwards through his body quickly. Through his thighs, his stomach, his chest, his neck…… when the slimes have reached his neck, the young man inexplicably opened his mouth wide and for some twisted reason, he let the disgusting looking slimes to enter his mouth without hesitation. Once they're inside his mouth, he closed his jaw and started to chew.

It took probably three to four seconds before he finally completed whatever it was that he's doing, and after that, he gave a big smile to the young lady who only watched all of his acts with a disgusted expression on her face.

"No matter how many times I saw your Jutsu, it never failed to disgust me," she said with a revolted look on her face.

"But even you can't deny its usefulness though," he replied nonchalantly, "If it's not because of my Jutsu, we wouldn't be able to complete phase one of our plan and that would surely make things so much harder for all of us, right?"

"Whatever," she said grimly, "Let's go."

They dashed themselves towards the entrance of the cave. Seconds after they've entered it, the cave entrance all of a sudden quaked, and descends slowly to the ground to disappear entirely from the view. From the ground all around where the entrance was before, numerous trees suddenly appeared, and they ascend themselves towards the sky with incredible speed. Not long after the view was restored just like before—a group of tall trees standing inside dark forest with nothing unusual in sight.

Their traces were gone.


-Underground Cave

"Where have you been, Kaede? Seto?"

A stern face welcomed the pair as soon as they entered the cave. Unexpectedly, the room under the ground of which the previous entrance finally led to was very spacious. In fact, it was probably large enough to even contain one or two medium-sized houses.

The sight inside, however, was definitely very unprepossessing. The room, or the hall, of the cave was divided into two floors, and each floor were practically consisted of nothing but inhumane cells cramped with people of all kinds—young, old, men, women, and even children of all age. It was a terrifying sight to see all of those people contained within small cells, all looked painfully suffering because of one thing of another. Some growled pathetically, others begged for mercy, while the rest looked frustrated beyond reasoning. Many even looked as though they thought it would be much better for them to just die instead of living, and horrifically some of the cells also contained the corpses, or remains of the dead, most probably the result of those who could no longer handle the pressures and opt to end their own suffering by their own hands.

All the growling, the yells, the cries of suffering did not seem to faze either Kaede or Seto in the slightest—neither they affected the one that greeted them. There're also probably around fifteen to sixteen men and women overall patrolling the hall, bypassing the cells one by one, and they all looked eerily uncaring and downright indifferent to all of suffering that happened all around them.

"I ask you again," the person once again glared at the two that just arrived, "Where have you been?"

This greeting person was a bald young man, probably two or three years older then the pair that just entered the hall. His style was undeniably distinct: he wore a pitch-black cloak with nothing but a single eye symbol latched on his back. The cloak covered his entire body from his upper neck all the way to the bottom of his feet. There was a very visible looking scar stretched on his forehead—a scar so hideous and scary one could only wonder under what kind of situation that could cause it, and how it's possible for the young man to have survived a wound of such magnitude on his head.

One other thing that seemed so unusual about the bald man was the fact that he… didn't open his eyes at the slightest. His eyelids were tightly shut even though he's currently addressing his companions. It was as if that he was…

"Blind as you may be, you never cease to amaze me, Hideo-san," Seto said coolly, "You always seemed able to detect the presence of others accurately under any circumstances. I suppose it's true when they said blind men have sharpened senses as replacements for their missing sight."

"We're not talking about my missing sight," the bald young man named Hideo replied unsympathetically, "We're talking about your unexplainable lack of presence during the time when we were supposed to prepare ourselves for the commencement of Leader's plan in Sand. Explain yourself."

"Calm down, man," Seto said, "Thanks to Leader's invention and my Jutsu, we have managed to secure the first phase of our plan, right? I have done my job, thought I could have some fun while waiting for the results to show up in the Sand, eh?"

Hideo was clearly not amused by Seto's lack of explanation, because he was glaring at him mercilessly.

"Actually, Hideo-san," Kaede answered composedly, "I think it would be best if we explain ourselves directly to the Leader. We infiltrated Konoha and managed to encounter the Sixth Hokage, plus the Jounins by the name of Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. I am sure Leader will be interested in hearing our explanations."

Hideo looked slightly surprised when he heard those names mentioned by Kaede. He still had that displeased expression on his face, but it was inarguable that he looked somewhat intrigued as well.

"…Very well," he said quietly, "Leader also wished to speak to you. He apparently already had his own ideas about your supposed whereabouts, but nevertheless, he'd still like to speak with you two directly. I'll accompany you to his chamber."

"Fine," Kaede nodded.

The three of them then walked into one of the tunnels that connected itself to the hall. It would appear that the large hall served as some sort of a central hub that has accesses to several different locations on the underground cave, with multiple tunnels attached there that led to multiple rooms.

Those three picked up the most northern one. It was a very long tunnel, and somewhere midway through it descended quite steeply even further down. The only illuminations provided inside the tunnel came from several large candles placed on top of candle holders attached occasionally on the walls. Other than that, the tunnel provided no other distraction whatsoever, except for occasional drip of water ground that fell from its ceilings.

Overall, the hallway had a very dark atmosphere about it, and somehow it could also be said that it provoked a rather unexplainable feeling of dread which grew increasingly bigger the further anyone went inside it.

It took several long minutes for those three to traverse through the tunnel, an activity that they spent together in silence. In the end, a door could be seen at the finish line—the mere sight of it suddenly evoked an apprehensive expression on those three, an expression that suggested that whatever room was behind that door, they wouldn't expect to see rainbows and flowers once they opened it.

"Leader hasn't gone out from his room yet?" Kaede muttered quietly.

"No," Hideo replied solemnly, "Not for the last couple of days. He seemed busy doing… something. Even I don't have a distinct enough idea about his activities inside his chamber."

"Huh…" Seto mumbled softly, "Hey, by the way, about the first phase of our plan—when it will begin to take effect? I'd hate it if all of my efforts gone to waste…"

"Leader said it will start to take its full effect tomorrow, just as planned—a day before the Raikage arrives in the Sand," Hideo said matter-of-factly, "Do not worry. It was something that our Leader himself invented—if, by some chance, things don't go out as planned, it'll be your fault instead of his."

Seto looked annoyed, and for a second it appeared like he wanted to say something to retort, but in the end he didn't say anything else.

They quietly approached the door. Hideo opened it, and then they entered the room behind it one by one.

……

The room was immense, and it was generally well lit thanks to various well-placed lamps spread throughout, a nice change from the dark atmosphere so profound on the tunnel before. However, it also provided a truly unearthly sight for those who unfortunate enough to land their eyes upon it.

The most eye-catching element inside the room was without a doubt the numerous giant tubes spread across the room. The giant tubes were connected with various large cables that spread all over the floor, and they exuded a constant soft 'bmmmm' sound that signified they were turned on for some purpose. However, the most chilling thing about the tubes was not the appearances of the tubes themselves, but more like the things contained within their bodies.

…Floating human bodies—of all kinds, of all sizes: men, women, young, adult, elderly… all could be seen contained within the tubes. They didn't appear to be alive as they floated within the yellowish liquid inside the tubes, with their bodies injected with seemingly innumerable amount of cables of all types and sizes.

Some of the tubes even more eerily contained parts of human bodies: severed hands, severed legs, torsos, and even brains… they were also injected with various cables of all types and sizes.

As if the unholy sights of human bodies and body parts floating inside the tubes weren't enough, the room was also filled with what appeared to be numerous corpses laid down on numerous white beds. Just like the bodies inside the tubes, the corpses were also of many different kinds: men, women, young, adult, elderly… They were also connected with cables that led to various kinds of equipments. The terrifying thing was that most of them were in a truly bad shape—missing body parts, opened heads, ripped torsos, unrecognizable wounds, broken faces…… It was a sight that would make even the bravest of men gag in revulsion and horror.

However, amazingly, the three that just entered the room didn't pay any attention to any of those horrific sights. Distracting as they might be, their attentions were instead devoted onto something else: a single man, sitting casually on a chair at the northern part of the room. He was reading a book, aided by a small lamp placed on a small table nearby.

That man was perhaps the only 'normal' thing existed in this room—but then again, maybe he wasn't. Maybe it would be a lot more precise to say that that instead of the only normal thing, he was in fact the most abnormal thing in this room. How could person read a book in a composed and relaxed kind of way, seemingly unbothered in the slightest by the unearthly sights and horrific atmosphere of the room that surrounded him, seemingly indifferent by all of the corpses and bodies spread throughout the same room as him? It was very eerie, unnatural, and downright uncanny.

The three approached him apprehensively.

When the man sensed them getting closer, he lifted his eyes from the book he read and gazed directly at the approaching party.

"…Ah…" he said calmly as he put down the book he read on his lap, "So you two have returned."

"…Yes," Kaede replied—she looked somewhat anxious, "Yes, we have."

"So…" he said composedly as he leaned his back on the chair he sat on, "Tell me. Tell me about your visit to Konoha. It must be an eventful one, I presume."

"Yes," she nodded again, "Yes, we will tell you everything right now…… Kabuto-sama."


-The Sand

Naruto, Sakura, and Sai dashed blazingly towards the Sand Village's Entrance that they could see looming in the distance. Ever since they woke up from their rest the very first thing this morning, they ran continuously as fast as they could towards the Sand non-stop.

Naruto, in particular, just didn't have enough patience to wait any further to arrive in the Sand. He had that excited look on his face all the time ever since he woke up—the thought of being able to meet Gaara after so long made him eager to reach their destination as quickly as possible.

…However, when they're about to reach the entrance, Sakura—who managed to keep up with Naruto and ran exactly at his side despite his overflowing enthusiasm—noticed something with her eyes. She noticed something so unusual happening at the entrance, she felt the need of immediately telling both Naruto and Sai although they're about to arrive there regardless.

"Naruto, Sai!" she yelled, "Look!"

Both Naruto and Sai looked up to see what was going on.

Sakura was correct—something unusual definitely happened. There's some sort of a ruckus surging in the entrance, and instead of standing over at their posts watching the perimeter, the guards were instead in the middle of something terribly urgent.

"…I wonder what's going on," Sai muttered questioningly.

Naruto suddenly got a bad feeling—the expression of excitement on his face was quickly replaced with worry.

Without even thinking, he accumulated some extra chakra on his feet and dashed himself even faster towards the entrance.

……

"I will go to the Leaf myself!" Temari said urgently as she tucked her giant fan on a holder tightened to her back—for some reason, she looked somewhat tired and her overall attire appeared like they just went through some busy times, "You all keep guarding over the entrance, and under no circumstances you will let anyone comes in, or comes out! Understood?"

The men of whom she spoke to showed heavy concerns on their faces.

"B…but, Lady Temari," one of them voiced his opinions, "…W…what should we do if they forcibly try to break through us? Should we… kill them? B… but if we do that, that means…… Because no matter what, they're still…"

"……" Temari stayed quiet. She had a pained expression on her face, and expression that didn't show any indication that she too had the best answer for the question.

The men looked at each other. They all looked visibly frustrated.

Then, one of them suddenly looked something.

"Hey, look!" he said loudly, "I…it's them!"

All of the people there quickly turned their heads as the Jounins of the Leaf finally arrived in front of them, their faces looked concerned.

"Oh…" Temari muttered. The reaction on her face when she saw them arrive was best described as immeasurably relieved. It's as if an extremely heavy burden from her chest suddenly fell off, and the expression of pain that was so visible on her face before was quickly replaced with an expression of hope.

It didn't take a genius to figure that something was off, and the Jounins of the Leaf wasted no time to immediately ask questions.

"What happened, Temari-san?" Sakura was the first one to ask question as she approached the seemingly bushed Temari, "Has something happened?"

"…Haruno-san…" Temari muttered fervently, "Yeah, something terrible suddenly happened this morning… We haven't got any clue whatsoever about the cause… and the Sand is now in the state of chaos because of this… and…"

"Calm down," Sai said composedly, "Take a deep breath, and explain to us the full situation clearly. There's no use for unnecessary haste."

Temari shot a look towards Sai. She gazed at him intently for a few seconds, like she was scrutinizing him. In the end though, she nodded.

"Okay," she said, "…You see…"

Before she could say anything however, a sudden urgent shout immediately shifted everybody's attention.

"WATCH OUT!" said one of the entrance guards that came from way inside, "WATCH OUT! SOMEONE BROKE THROUGH!"

Without warning, a figure of a young Kunoichi suddenly leapt towards Temari from behind. With her right hand, she thrust a Kunai directed straight towards Temari's torso. It all happened so fast the Fan Kunoichi didn't have a proper time to react.

-TRAAK!-

Fortunately, Naruto was quick on the move—just one second late, and the Kunai would most definitely pierce through Temari without mercy. With incredible speed, he formed a Rasengan ball with his right hand and quickly side-stepped in between Temari and the assailing Kunoichi. He pushed the Rasengan ball directly towards the Kunai, making direct forceful contact with it.

The Rasengan ball literally 'ate' the Kunai up, as the weapon disintegrated as the ball touched it. When Naruto forcefully pushed the ball even further, it disintegrated the Kunai entirely and finally made contact with the Kunoichi's hand.

The result was spectacular. As soon as the Rasengan hit, the Kunoichi's hand was forcefully twisted to the same direction as the rotation of the ball, and it pulled the rest of her body to spin onto the same circular direction. The effect of the impact was very apparent—the Kunoichi was pushed backwards as her entire body spun uncontrollably. She flew backwards like she was a rag doll getting hit by something extraordinarily powerful.

-DRAKKK!-

Her body was getting slammed very powerfully into the one side of the Sand Village Entrance's walls, making a very distinct, loud impact noise that was enough to make even Sakura winced. The force of the impact was very apparent—the wall itself broke apart as the body of the Kunoichi was practically implanted there, with her legs facing upwards and her face on down below because of the uncontrollable spin earlier.

-Drrkk- -Drkkkk-

-Brugh!-

That part of the wall then crumbled, along with the body of the Kunoichi that fell on the ground, now clearly unconscious with her face kissing the ground.

"Are you alright, Temari-san?" Naruto said as he glanced to her.

It took Temari a few seconds to register what just happened to her, and in the end all she could say was, "Y…yeah, thank you," accompanied with a nod.

…For a while, everybody from the Sand didn't say anything—they seemed to become at lost for words after having witnessed with their own eyes just how powerful Naruto's Jutsu could be. Even Sai looked somewhat amused.

Sakura, however, didn't dwindle long to be impressed by it. She immediately jumped towards the now-unconscious Kunoichi, wanting to examine her. When she turned the Kunoichi around, however, she saw something that caused her great surprise.

The unconscious Kunoichi wore a Ninja Headband on her forehead.

And the symbol on that Headband was clearly that of the Sand.

...What the… Sakura mused inside her mind, She's a Sand Ninja? But then, why did she…?

She turned and gave a questioning look at Temari.

"What's going on here?" she asked, "Why…"

"I'll explain everything later," Temari said hastily, "At first I planned to go to the Leaf to request for aid, but since you three are already here… I suppose you're here because of the letter sent by Gaara, right? Unfortunately just today…"

She paused for a second, before saying, "…Let's help my brothers first, and then we'll talk."

She gave a signal to the rest of the men surrounding the area, and they all nodded understandingly. Then, without saying anything, she dashed towards the Village, without sparing even the slightest of glances towards the unconscious Sand Kunoichi that unexpectedly attacked her earlier.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sai looked at each other for a second.

They nodded at each other.

Then, without further ado, they immediately followed Temari and entered the Village of Sand, without knowing… what awaited them inside.

TO BE CONTINUED