"What the hell happen here!" Anko shouted. While behind her, Hana was emptying the contents of her stomach on the stone paved road. This is the first time that Hana witness such a terrible sight. So, when she saw the bodies; she couldn't stop the rush of vomit that was trying to escape her mouth. Falling on her hands and knees, she vomited on the road. After a while she stop vomiting, but when the stench of decay hit her sensitive nose; she quickly began again. The others were better at controlling their gag reflex, because of their experiences and witnessing their own fair share of death. Hana had neither, because of her youth and her lack of experiences. Since she never took any mission higher than a C-rank. preferring to stay in the village and run her animal clinic. The only experiences with death, is when she attend funerals. She never witness the violent death of someone. Witnessing as they slowing die, the light fading from their eyes. So, she was unprepared for the sight in front of her.

From the looks of it, the bodies were stacked on top of each other before they were set on fire. Some of the charred bones still had flesh on it, and pieces of fabric was fuse with the remaining flesh.

As Hana finished emptying her stomach, Shikaku approach the pile; examining the remains. Most of the corpses were probably villagers since they didn't have a Hitai-ate, but there was some Iwagakure shinobi in the pile.

"Why would they burn the bodies?" he thought as he thoroughly examine the corpses for any clues.

"What do you think happen here Shikaku" Kakashi ask the lazy genius. Sighing he turn around to face the others.

"Well before I examined the bodies, I came up with many possible conclusions. The first one, is that this may be the work of the Saisei. A large cult that has members worldwide. They are obsess with the idea of rebirth, believing that once a person approaches death; the only way to be reborn in the world is to be cleanse of their sins. So the person on their death beds would be set on fire, since they believe fire to be pure and capable of cleansing them of their sins. The only reason they are still around is because they have members in high positions of power. And add that they only practice this ritual on followers of their religion. At least that was true a year ago, but recently the cult had a radical change of view. Believing that the world was full of sins, and because that the process of rebirth has been halted. And the only way to continue the cycle of rebirth, is to cleanse the world of sins."

"I heard about them. Didn't they set a couple of villages ablaze in the Land of Tea a month ago?" Yamato ask.

"Yes that was them. They usually target villages that don't have shinobi villages nearby."

"If they don't target villages that have shinobi villages nearby, then why do you think that this was their work?" Anko ask.

"There have been disturbing rumors that they were recruiting missing shinobi into their ranks. That they were planning to attack one of the great shinobi villages. In fact we were planning a joint operation with the other villages to take them out, but when Iwagakure went silent it was put aside in favor of discovering why Iwagakure went silent. Iwagakure has a history of betraying their allies when the opportunity arises, so when the Tsuchikage stopped attending the meetings and all communication with Iwagakure ceased. The other villages began to suspect that Iwagakure may have sided with the cult, planning on overthrowing the other villages. Leaving Iwagakure as the only super power left. And of course with Iwagakure failing economy and their depleting food source, it may have cause them to become desperate. Further adding to the suspicion, but the other village couldn't send a team to investigate. Since they didn't have proof that Iwagakure had sided with the cult, and they weren't willing to risk war if they were proven wrong. So the villages left Iwagakure alone, raising their defense and putting their shinobi on high alert. After weeks with no activity happening, they were approached by the Earth Daimyo asking for their help. When the Daimyo asked the Kages for help to discover the reason his shinobi village has fallen silent, they eagerly agreed. Seeing this as a chance to finally investigate Iwagakure without the risk of starting a war. Anyway let get back on the topic on why I first believed that Saisei was responsible for the scene in front of us. The Saisei may have had members inside the village, sabotaging a few key areas to distract the shinobi. While a small group knocks out the shinobi guarding the gate. Letting in their main invading force. But here is where I run into a hole in the theory, even if the Saisei were recruiting missing shinobi into their ranks. There is no missing shinobi strong enough to overpower a Kage, the only exception being the Akatsuki. We know very little about their motives, but I doubt that the Akatsuki would allied themselves with the cult. So they lack the man power to overthrow the Kage. There is the possibility that they may had someone on the inside, drug the Tsuchikage rendering helpless in stopping the invading forces. But even that is unlikely since the Tsuchikage is a very paranoid man. Bringing the likely hood that the Saisei were responsible for the fall of the village, down by a lot. And after I examined the bodies, it completely destroyed that theory. Since the bodies were long dead before they were set on fire, and the Saisei believe that the only way to be reborn is to be cleanse of your sins before you die. So this couldn't be the work of the Saisei."

"What is your other theory then?" Kakashi ask.

"The village may have been wiped out by a new strain of influenza. It isn't uncommon that entire villages would be wiped out by disease and sickness. In fact the Land of Waves lost half of their population after the Second Shinobi World War, do to a new strain of bird flu. Iwagakure may have been hit by a new strain of influenza, and it wouldn't be surprising that the virus manage to spread throughout the village do to the state Iwagakure was in. Their crops were dying, losing a large portion of their food source. The Tsuchikage would have imposed rations to conserve their remaining food source. And do to the village failing economy, the village healthcare would have taken a huge budget cut. So taking into account of the village poor diets and the lack of healthcare, it would have made an excellent breeding ground for a new strain of influenza. The first few cases would have been ignored, believing that they were just infected with the common flu. And these ignored cases would unintentionally spread the virus to others, and then those new carriers would spread the virus to others. This cycle would continue for while until eventually most of the population is infected. Face with a pandemic, the Tsuchikage would have ordered a quarantine to prevent the new strain from spreading. This would explain the last message we received from them to stay away. They didn't want to risk the chance of the virus escaping quarantine. And it would explain why they were burning the bodies, because it is common practice to burn the remains of the decease to eliminate the chances of the virus spreading and to prevent diseases from spreading. Since burying the corpses would take to long and the decaying flesh would provide excellent breeding ground for bacteria. Of course even this theory isn't sound proof, because even though if the virus had a hundred percent mortality rate; there would still be people would are naturally immune to the strain. So least say that less than point one percent of the village population survived the outbreak and the chaos, that would leave a few hundred alive. So the survivors would try to leave the village, since they have no longer any reason to stay and there would be no shinobi to stop them. The survivors would be villagers, since any shinobi left alive would have left when the pandemic took a turn for the worse. So that means that the only way they could leave the village is to go through the main gate, and as we saw the village gate was still close. The last clue that disproves this theory is the condition of the skulls. If you take a closer look on them, you would notice that each one of them has a puncture hole. Mostly likely caused by a kunai. So that would raise the question on why would the sick be killed. It is possible that the Tsuchikage was becoming desperate on containing the outbreak, so he would have order the execution of the infected. But even that is highly unlikely, because no matter how loyal a shinobi is to their leader, they will not be willing to kill their own family members. So an outbreak being the possible cause of the village demise is highly unlikely. Which brings me to my other theory. That this may have been a warning. Maybe the people were revolting, do to a lack of food and jobs. And the Tsuchikage may have ordered a public execution to set an example on what happens if you revolt. I can tell you many possible theories on what happen here, but we won't know until we head to the Kage tower and find some documents that would explain what happen."

"Well we will head to the Kage tower, after we find the missing shinobi team. Hana do you think that your dogs can find the scent again" Kakashi ask turning to face her.

"I believe so, but we will need to get far away from here, since the smell is overwhelming their sensitive nose." Hana replied, her face still pale from terrifying site in front of her.

"Alright, same positions as last time. Let move out"

...

"Ah! Sasuke I need you to collect a few specimen for me. Make sure that they are still moving" spoke the Snake Sannin while flashing Sasuke a crazed smile. Orochimaru was sitting on a throne like chair, inside a poorly lit room. And to his right stand his loyal assistant Kabuto. After seeing that his new 'apprentice' was still standing there, he ask,"Well aren't you going to go."

"No. Do it yourself" said the stoic avenger.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke" Orochimaru said while shaking his head. "I thought you said that you will do everything I say, and in return I promised to make you stronger. Don't you want to kill your brother, Sasuke." In the mention of his brother, Sasuke's eyes flashed red.

"Don't you dare mention that bastard in front of me. I will KILL ITACHI!"

"Good, in return of doing this small favor for me. I will give you the power to kill Itachi." Instead of replying, Sasuke's eyes returned to their original color. He turn around and left the room without saying any other word. Smiling in his success, Orochimaru turn to face his assistant.

"Kabuto, I want you to prepare a room for our new specimens."

"It will be done Lord Orochimaru."

...

"What are we going to do now Leader-Sama?" ask a huge cloak man with a wrapped sword on his back.

"We will still continue capturing the Tailed Beasts. What is happening outside is irrelevant. In fact we will use this distraction to capture the Tailed Beasts more easily, and once we have all the Tailed Beasts, the world will know PAIN."