M-P: Many of you, may have noticed that Tenten and Sasuke's images were not included on the wall. I didn't forget on purpose. They have special roles to play in latter chapters. Just sit tight for me, yeah? Good job on taking notice if you did! ^_^


It was crimson, the same colour as the tattoo on Gaara's forehead. He looked as though he was frozen. I stared at his picture. It was still glowing, albeit very faintly. I glanced above Gaara's head and touched the image of myself at a younger age. It also started to glow, a strange, orange-red colour, like my flames. I pressed my hand over that weird shape underneath my image. It looked like a contorted flame. I let out a cry, when my whole hand went straight through the wall.
"Natsu!" Lucy and Wendy yelled, shocked.
"Help!" I shouted with surprise. The wall had practically began eating me. I shot my nakama a pleading look before my head was swallowed by the wall.

*0*0*0*0*

The other side of the wall was deeper, colder and way darker. I held my hand in front of my face, right in front of my eye and I still couldn't see it. I frowned in the darkness. A strange sound, like a small boulder being pushed somewhere, started behind me. I pivoted and stood, ready.
"Huh?"
"Who's there?" I called.
"Naruto." The annoyed voice replied. "Natsu, why's it so dark in here?"
"How the heck am I supposed to know?" I muttered.
"Why don't you just use your fire, idiot." A voice snapped. I jumped, then glared around myself.
"Gray?! Who the hell invited you?" I grumbled crossly. One by one, the others entered. The only one that wasn't present was that Tenten girl, the one who handled weapons like Erza.
"Why's it so damn dark in here?" Gajeel muttered.
"Natsu, why don't you use some of your, erm, magic, to make a flame?" Temari asked, talking to a direction that was adjacent to me. I grinned, and rubbed my head sheepishly.
"Oh, yeah! I never thought of that!"
"I bet you didn't." Lucy, Temari and Gray growled at the same time. I held up my fist and let a flame light it up, only to jump about four feet into the air, when I took note of that guy's face, the one who was pale, right in front of me. A little closer than intimate, really.
"Sai, what the hell?!" Naruto exclaimed, annoyed, as I cowered behind Wendy, who looked a little concerned. Naruto looked at me and I allowed my flame to grow. He turned round and banged on the wall which we had all come from.
"Tenten! Tenten! Can you hear me!" A faint thud sounded on the other side. I nodded at Gajeel and he came to press his ear against the wall.
"She said she can." He relayed her message.
"Tenten, we're in some kind of cave! If you can, jump on top of it and follow it to the end, we'll see if we can meet up!"
"She said she understands. She's gone." Gajeel stood up, and walked back to us.
"So, what do we do now?" I turned to gape at Sai.
"You can talk?!" I screeched, pointing at him. He smiled, humorless, at me. Creepy. I turned to Gaara, who was standing with him arms crossed over his chest.
"We go to the end of this cave and meet up with Tenten, since that is what Naruto said." He finished, cutting his eyes at the orange clad ninja. Everyone turned to stare at me. There was a long pause, as they all waited.
"What?" I asked, confused. Lucy dragged her hand down her face and marched forward, grabbing me by the arm, a little off my flame and tugged me deeper.
"Make your flame bigger so we can see better, you idiot!" She muttered, marching me along. I stumbled after her and permitted my flame to enlarge itself. I could now see that the cave was full of long dead branches, why, I didn't know, but I picked one up, snapped it in half, lit the top of one and handed it to Lucy, the other to Gaara. Soon everyone held a branch with a medium sized flame on top. I let my fire grow more vibrant on my fist as I led the way.

*0*0*0*0*

"That Jake guy. Does anybody know who he is?" Hinata asked quietly. I frowned.
"If I'm totally honest, I'm not sure how it was that I knew his name, but it was like I had met him before." Gaara murmured. I nodded.
"Me too," I agreed. "I don't remember meeting him, but I felt a sense of familiarity towards him."
"That's weird." Gray said. "Especially since he seemed a little antagonistic toward us." We all murmured our agreement. Blip-ip-ip . . . I paused, causing Gray to bump into me.
"Natsu, what the hell?!" He barked out, surprised.
"Shut up, stripper!" I snapped back. "I can hear something."
"What is it, Natsu?" Shikamaru asked, coming to a stop beside me.
"Oi Salamander, Wendy . . ." Gajeel walked a little in front of me. I nodded and took a deep breath and yelled as loudly as I could.
"OI, IF YOU'RE THERE, SHOW YOURSELF!" Lucy smacked me across the back of my head.
"You idiot! What if it's an enemy?"
"No, don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you." I pivoted towards the voice.
"Show yourself." Naruto called out. Out from behind a large moss coloured boulder stood the same boy who had said he knew how to get us home. Only . . . he was slightly shorter, had light brown hair, large brownish caramel eyes and a younger, more mischievous twinkle in his eye.
"Jake?!" Erza muttered, eyeing him suspiciously. He laughed, a jolly, boy-to-man laugh. His voice was also a little higher pitched than Jake's.
"Nah, I'm not Jake. I'm his youngest brother. I thought you might get stuck with the weird clue my brother gave you, so I came here to wait for you. I'm Nate." All gaped at him, eyes sticking out of our sockets.
"EH?!"