Chapter 4 is finally here! And I must say me and southdakotaboy (yup, you guessed it, it's me, shkamaru15, this time) are most satisfied with the number of hits and story alerts we've been having! And keep the reviews coming!

Have we ever told you we don't own Naruto? (Although we wish we did. Yeah, that would be nice...)

Meeting the Wraith

Everyone was staring at Aki, who was sweating profusely.

"Aki, are you alright? Taka asked, concerned about her friend. "Why are you..."

"They're here..." Aki interrupted Taka in a very faint voice. "Wraith... The Wraith..."

Taka suddenly screamed in pure terror, as two mosquito-like space ships appeared out of nowhere. Kitamyia and Kitane immediately recognized the two ships and added their panicked voices to the screaming. When they saw Aki faint, all the doubt left their minds, the moment that they had all feared had finally arrived. It was the Wraith alright. They were here. With a strength born of desperation and raw terror Taka picked up her unconscious friend's limp body and slung her over her shoulder. Staggering under the weight Taka rejoined the others.

"Kitamya... Kitane... It's the Wraith, they're here! We need to run!" Taka shouted at her friends.

Hinata was watching the scene unfolding before her with a growing sense of dread. She didn't know what those flying metal carriages were and she didn't know why the girls were so scared, in short she didn't know anything. There was one thing she did know though and that was the fact that these Wraith were not going to be as friendly to her and her friends as the girls had been.

"What's going on?" Hinata asked, as the three girls ran by, trying to escape something.

"It's the Wraith!" Kitamyia answered. "They're..." but before she could finish the sentence, a beam looking much like heat waves on a hot summers day, shot out of the front of one of the spaceships. It enveloped Kitamyia and she vanished before Hinata's astonished eyes.

"Kitamyia!" Kitane shouted, but seconds later she too was hit by the same beam, vanishing without a trace just as Kitamyia had.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto shouted, running towards her. With growing alarm he had witnessed Kitamyia and Kitane's disappearing as well. "What the hell's going AAAAAAARRGGH!" Now before Hinata's horrified eyes, Naruto became the third victim of the beam.

"Naruto-kun!!!" she screamed in despair. This couldn't have happened, Naruto couldn't have... he couldn't have...

"Hinata, what're you doing?" Kiba shouted, darting after Taka, who was still carrying Aki. "Take cover!" he ordered. Those were his last words before he too was hit by the beam. Less than a heart beat later Taka and Aki were hit as well.

And now Hinata just stood there, alone, at the mercy of the mosquito-ships, unable to move as the beam shot out one last time and claimed its' final victim.

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A sudden pain, as if she had been stung, and she was suddenly on Naruto's lap, in a small, strange looking room. The walls were like nothing Hinata had ever seen before. It looked and felt like they were inside a living animal.

Wait, Naruto's lap Hinata thought to herself. If she was sitting in his lap that meant that he was alive! Her precious Naruto-kun was alive. He was alive and that was all that mattered at the moment.

"Hinata-chan, are you okay?" Naruto asked. The concern in his voice took Hinata aback. Did Naruto care THAT much for her?

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata cried, hugging him with all the strength she could gather. The hug didn't last for long though, for as soon as Hinata realized what she was doing she got as red as the reddest tomato, pulling herself free of Naruto, who had returned the embrace by that time, only managing not to faint because of the situation they were in. "W-where are w-we?" she asked.

"I think we're aboard that flying thing..." Naruto said letting the statement hang as he stared at Hinata. Hinata felt herself being pulled into his blue eyes. Shaking herself free of his gaze Hinata began to look around.

"W-where are K-kiba-kun and t-the others? I saw them disappear to."

"Two of the girls are over there..."answered Naruto. He pointed to a corner of the room, where Kitamyia and Kitane lay unconscious. "I don't know where Kiba is... but there were two of those flying things right? Kiba must be aboard the other one! Don't worry Hinata-chan." He said, pulling her into another embrace. This time Hinata could faint, and so she did.

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Meanwhile, in another small, strange room, Kiba came to his senses. He was lying down on the cold, damp floor; with a curious weight on his legs. Kiba knew it wasn't Akamaru's but for some reason it felt familiar. Opening his eyes Kiba saw that it was the girl he had met earlier. Since Taka was slowly waking up as well Kiba decided to remain silent. She shook her head, noticed where she was laying and looked at Kiba, who looked back at her, both of them began blushing, Taka more intensively than the dog boy.

"So we met again," Kiba said in a friendly tone.

At the sound of his voice Taka got up hurriedly and checked on the still unconscious Aki. Aki lay curled in a fetal position in a far corner of the room moaning softly.

"Where are we?" Kiba asked.

"We're in a Wraith Dartship," Taka said absentmindedly as she gently placed Aki's head in her lap and began to slowly stroke her hair.

"Ok," Kiba said trying to keep his temper in check." How about this, who are the Wraith?"

Taka's head snapped up and she simply stared at Kiba.

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

"What do you mean who are the Wraith?"

"Well it is a pretty simple question and Hinata did say we weren't from around here."

Taka felt hope flare in her chest. She thought, could these people be the ones that her people had heard rumors about. The ones who had begun to fight the Wraith? But, no if they were the same people he would already know about the Wraith wouldn't he. Taka felt the flicker of hope start to die in her chest.

Kiba watched the rapid play of emotions run across Taka's face. "Taka we really aren't from around here. We don't know who the Wraith are and if we're going to fight them we need to know who and what they are."

"Fight them? Fight them, no one fights the Wraith. Not if you want any of your people to survive the culling."

"The culling?" Kiba asked with concern in his voice. Akamaru poked his head out of Kiba's jacket and whined.

"Yes the Wraith survive by feeding on the life force of human beings. They go from planet to planet harvesting human beings as food. The only take so many people from each planet so as not to kill us all off." Taka sat up a little straighter and switched into what Kiba called teaching mode.

"The Wraith are an ancient people almost as old as the Gate Builders. Some people even think that the Gate Builders created the Wraith. They travel between planets aboard huge Hive ships. When they arrive at a planet they continually dial up the gate address so that people can't escape. Then they send out their Darts to capture anyone they can. After a day they move on to the next planet."

"Has anyone stood up to them or tried to fight them off?" Kiba asked.

"Sometimes you hear stories about a planet that tries, but they are always destroyed and any survivors that are off planet at the time are ruthlessly hunted down."

Before Taka could continue her story Kiba noticed a change in the background noise. He had been hearing a steady high pitched whine it now was overpowered by a deep throbbing hum.

At that moment Aki sat straight up and announced "We're here." Just as quickly all life left her face and she stared vacantly off into the distance.

After an hour long wait the door split in two and snapped open. Through the door marched four muscle bound monstrosities. They were a pale grayish green in color with long white hair. Their faces were hidden behind white masks. The masks looked like they were made out of bone. Each guard was armed with a long staff like weapon. Kiba automatically assumed they were much more dangerous than they looked. Without a sound the guards split off two to a side and pointed their weapons at the little group.

Kiba's attention was snapped back to the door as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Another figure was entering the room. He was markedly different from the first four Wraith. He was more normally proportioned and his face was not covered. He was a darker shade of gray green and he wore a long, leather like trench coat. His face had a series of gill like slits running up each side of his face.

"Get up! You'll be seeing the Queen now." He said, smirking maliciously.

He escorted the three humans out of the cell and out of the mosquito like Dart ship and into the mother ship. They began marching through a large bay, along the way they met Naruto and the others. They were also being escorted by a squad of Wraith Guards. The second squad was also led by one of the different looking Wraith. The two leaders had a short conversation the second Wraith officer strode off leaving his men with the first officer. Turning the officer led the group into a corridor. As they marched down the corridor Kiba noticed many smaller corridors branching off. His acute hearing enabled him to hear far off wails and screams of terror and pain. With a growing sense of horror Kiba realized that Taka had been telling the absolute truth when she had told him the Wraith used human beings as food.

Naruto tilted his head every time they passed one of the corridors. He too could hear the far off sounds, gulping down his anxiety he looked over at Hinata who was helping Kitane and Kitamyia. Hinata felt his eyes upon her and glanced over at him. Naruto felt the now familiar tightening of his chest that he got lately. It always seemed to happen when he would look at Hinata. Naruto saw the concerned and worried expression on her face and flashed her his most confident grin. At that moment Naruto promised himself that he wouldn't let any harm come to Hinata.

After a short, five minute walk, they arrived at the end of the corridor. Standing in front of a large and imposing door were two more of the muscle bound guards. Without seeming to receive any orders the guard on the left made a swiping motion with his hand over a panel at the edge of the door. The door silently slid open. It was impossible to see what lay in the darkness beyond.

Turning to face them the Wraith officer gave them a cruel smirk and motioned for them to enter. "The Queen is waiting..."