I'm a bit late you say? What a lot late? Noooo. That can't be! I'm not lazy! Not me!!! What makes you think that?!?!

Well, hope you like it. Even though it is... late (very late!!!!) Late.

Sasuke dropped the test tube he'd been holding. He hadn't slept at all since he'd come back, and apparently, it was getting to him. He sighed and dropped to his knees, picking up the broken pieces.

Something under the desk caught his attention. A green light was blinking on a barrel. He'd never really noticed it before. But then again, it had never been blinking at him instantly like it was now.

Suddenly, the light just went red. This intrigued him no end. Forgetting the broken test tube, he reached forwards and pulled the small barrel out. He was surprised to see that there were others just like the one he had set eyes on.

He occupied himself for a few minutes, pulling out all of the barrels one by one. He counted them, noting that there were nine of them. Something in the back of his mind was shouting and banging around, trying to attract attention to it's self. Unfortunately, Sasuke had gotten incredibly good at ignoring that voice.

He checked the lights on all of them. Most were still green. Only one of them was red, and another was blinking slowly. A file was sitting in the floor. It had been hidden under the barrels till he had decided to move everything.

It was covered in dust, but still perfectly conserved. This was Kabuto, after all. He opened the file and scanned through the contense. A particular title caught his eye.

Jinchuriki Cell Control.

As he read the information he had never even glanced before, his eyes widened. This... was bad. Very bad.

The green light meant that cell reproduction was fine. The blinking one meant that it was decreasing. The red meant that there was dangerously little, or none at all.

And this cell control... It seemed to be for the first batch of Jinchuriki Orochimaru had tried his skills on. The one that Naruto was part of. And one of those nine Jinchuriki was going to die. Very soon by the looks of it. And he had absolutely no indication of who it was.

But... Naruto had seemed fine a few days ago... This couldn't be right. But something told him it had even less chance of being wrong.

Suddenly, he thought of his work. Of what he had been doing for the past few years. He had just finished taking care of their last batch of... subjects. He didn't think they would survive... None of the others had... But what if they did?

He thought of what the consequences might be. Bad. Horrible.

Kiba woke up suddenly. He got up grumbling, walking towards his kitchen.

He'd had a dream. Not a bad dream. Not a good dream. Just... a dream. It'd have been boring if he hadn't felt that something out of place. Something he was missing.

It had been about his... fight, with Jiraya. Strange. Usually he slept like a rock. Not a dream in sight.

So what the heck was up with that?

Shrugging it off and feeding Akamaru, he wondered how she should occupy himself. he didn't have much to do really. He guessed he didn't quite have a job anymore, thanks to the rather... inconsiderate way he'd stormed out of the building, yelling insults to and about his 'teacher'. Or mentor. Whichever works. Bar that. Would have worked not two days before.

Maybe he'd go in search of Naruto. He'd heard the guy had disappeared from when he was in Shizune's office, and it was so rare for the blond to do such a thing that something must have happened. He'd go see Hinata. Maybe she'd know something.

Naruto was running. He was following the sent the Uchiha had left behind. For once, he really was glad to have Kyuubi. At the moment, the demon was helping him with his extremely good sense of smell.

Right. Naruto didn't discuss this, turning in the direction the Bijuu had indicated immediately.

You know, whichever one it actually is, you have to be careful. Very much so actually. When it comes to hurting you, they're both as good. Or as bad. Whichever way you want to say it.

We have to find him. You said so yourself. His smell is new. He can't be far.

I also pointed out that there were two of them.

I know, you keep saying that.

And you aren't listening. Right. They came tumbling down a hill, having burst out of the undergrowth.

Right. And he ran on again, pushing his way back into the forest he had so rapidly exited. Then he stopped. Even he could smell the stench. It seemed to weigh down the air, suffocating him. The trees also seemed to feel it, their leaved drooping, they seemed to have lost their color.

"What is that?"

That, Naruto, is death? Bad death. It smells... wrong. Left.

No. Not left. I can tell from your tone. Sasuke didn't go left.

True. But you're still turning left. This is too wrong for us to ignore. Naruto reasoned with himself (really himself, nothing to do with Kyuubi). He really should check it out. He could continue to search for Sasuke later. As soon as this was over.

He turned left. As he walked forwards, the smell got worse. Much worse. It seemed to slowly weigh him down. As he continued to breath it in, it started to make him anxious. He now felt sick and disgusted. Disconcerted, both the container and the demon felt it. Something was wrong here. This was not just death. Not even a disgusting horrible death. This was... Evil.

Stop. Here. Dig. Naruto knelt down and put his hands on the ground. NOW! He started digging. After a while, his hands brushed something soft. He pulled away so fast that he fell backwards.

It was a body. Naruto moved towards the hole, to make sure what he had seen was really there. Kyuubi stopped him.

NO! Don't touch that! Naruto jumped, startled by the insistence of the Bijuu.

This... This smell. It smells of demon.

The statement was followed by silence. I was a heavy, horrible silence. Almost as bad as the atmosphere the corpses spread around them.

We have to go back.

No. Naruto, although shaken, still had a single thought in mind. It had raven hair.

We are going back. Now.

No. We are going to look for Sasuke. Then we can go back.

This is more important than that boy.

No it isn't. He might even know what's happening. Inside his head, spurred on by that single thought, Kyuubi made all of the connections. A light bulb may have appeared were the occasion less drastic. But we'll have to settle for a flash of lightning.

Naruto. We are going back. Before the blond could answer, Kyuubi made him turn around, and they started sprinting back the way they had come, both their minds filled with anxiety.

Fara was exhausted. She'd spent the whole day running around, trying to find all of the Jinchuriki. Goubei and Shuyo had been easy to find. Not only were they generally together, but they never wandered far anyway. Jianyi and Motohuan hadn't been much trouble either. They spent most of their time in her house and garden anyway.

Gaara wasn't a problem either. He came to check up on her at least twice a day. So finding him was easier than avoiding him really.

No. It was the others she was having trouble with. Heishi was probably dancing around the town, trying to find something to entertain her. For the others... They were... Well. She couldn't quite find the word actually. Volatile sounded... well dangerous. Then again, they were pretty dangerous. All of them.

Goshin... Where could he be? In the forest probably. Either sleeping, or making poisons (one's slightly more harmful). And Banji... She was probably in the forest too. There was a shrine there, where she had been found after Orochimaru had let them out into the open. The only problem was: that thing was really hard to find.

She wasn't quite sure how she was meant to find them, to give them the message. Couldn't they just... just be there?!?!?! It was so frustrating! And why was she always the one that had to find them all on such short notice?! She felt her rage grow, taking up all of the space in her mind.

From across the room, Motohuan looked up, annoyed.

"You didn't have to shout."

"I didn't shout. I'm just a bit annoyed."

"You were shouting."

"No. I wasn't." At this point, Jianyi ran into the room looking worried. She was panting she had run so fast.

"Fara! Are you okay?" It was amazing how much she cared about Fara She seemed to not give a damn about anybody else.

"I'm FINE! What's wrong with you guys?"

"You were shouting so loud! I could hear you from the other end of the garden."

"I. Was. Not. SCREAMING!!!" What can I say? The poor girl's frustrated at the world at the moment.

"But I heard you." They looked at each other, confused. Then Fara smiled sadistically -insert light bulb. Or lighting really. Your choice.-

"You guys really heard me scream?" They both looked at her stupidly. Wasn't that what they had been trying to bore in her head seconds before?

Everyone. Come to my... Fara's house. Immediately.

Naruto...Kyuubi has called an urgent meeting.

Jiraya had talked to many people. He had seen many people, argued with many people, been glad that a few people were there, and been annoyed at a great number of people.

For some reason which he did not understand, this seemed to be playing with his mind. Not only was he grumbling some strange words such as idiots and bastards under his breath, but he also seemed to have trouble concentrating on the road in front of him. In the last few minutes he had come dangerously close to crashing the car thrice!

He was heading for a forest. It was a likely place for Orochimaru to be heading. There had been many deliveries in this region, and he had a strong feeling that he was on target. He had never felt so close. He was surprised how close it was to their hometown though. he really hadn't expected that. Then again, this was Orochimaru.

He still had to find the hideout though. That might take a while. Maybe he should have kept Kiba with him. he felt a pang of guilt at the thought, but shrugged it off. He'd make it up to the kid when he got back. They could do fine on their own for a while. Easy. No trouble.

He parked the car in one of those forest car parks where all you have is mud, a garbage can and a picnic table. There is also, if you dare to venture a little into the forest, many pieces of toilet paper, courtesy of previous passers-by.

He got out, went to the back and, after having opened the trunk up, he put all of his gear together, and pulled the single big pack left onto his back. Not knowing how long he would be away, he'd taken a lot of stuff. He didn't like having to carry it all now, but it would be useful later, and he knew it.

Avoiding the oh-so-charming toilet paper that littered the ground, he stated making has way into the forest, to search for the man who had been avoiding him for many yearn now.

A few house later, he was standing on top of a hill. He'd chosen to come here so as to have a good viewpoint. He was tired as hell now (good choices are... bad. hard.), but he had to admit, the view was indeed good. Very nice. There were quite a few trees. Well, quite a lot actually. Bar that. There was nothing but trees.

What had he expected? A great big ugly concrete building? A sign saying 'Evil Orochimaru's unfindable hideout!'. That would have been nice. But nooo. So much for hard but good ideas. He sat down, slightly discouraged, looking at thee vast expanse of tree.

Brooding, he rested his head against one of the trees, since there were quite a few to choose from, as we've established, and he closed his eyes. When he heard an explosion, he wondered who had managed to make their cooker explode. So close to a police station too. He hoped the forest didn't burn down.

He jumped to his feet suddenly, realising his thoughts didn't actually align. He wasn't at the police station. He was in the middle of the forest, on a hill. There had been a sudden explosion. In the forest.

He watched a pillar of smoke as it rose higher and higher into the sky. And smiled. Picking up his pack, he walked on, taking a precise direction, as if he knew where he was going.

"He could have just put up that sign instead."

Well, that was it! Did you like it?! Did you!? Sorry, I havn't got enough energy to find a funny Shizune comic... I'll put one in when I do. That good?

Please review, and I hope you have a nice... night I guess...

Oh! Wait! I have a funny poem!!!

'Night', said the knight to the other knight the other night. 'Night night, knight.'

Oh, and I'm sorry for the name mistake. One of my friends confused me, not on purpose, then pointed out the error. Thanks. That was Sahdowcat by the way.