Naruto sat up in bed, gasping, feeling the sweat dripping down his face. He felt really drained and exhausted, feeling none of the usual hyper-activeness or energy. What had just happened? He really wasn't sure.

As he flopped back into his bed, lacking the energy to investigate, he remembered the bizarre, totally unprecedented dream he had been experiencing before waking. He had been in a familiar, dark cavern, facing a familiar, large gate. Behind it he could feel the ominous presence and the astronomically powerful chakra looming.

Nothing had happened for a while. It had not moved, and neither had he. Then suddenly, he felt the proportions of everything around him change, and the gate seemed to move backwards. He was confused, and the gate seemed to accelerate away from him the longer he waited.

A sudden impulse had driven him forward, and he had begun running towards the gate, but it never seemed to get any closer. He had run for a long time, stretching as far as he could towards the gate, but to no use.

Then, in a flash, all went dark, and he felt himself plummet downwards, unable to sense anything around him, and he woke up.

'Weird.' Naruto thought, but at the moment, despite the sun's rays having begun to filter into his room, he was simply too tired to try and find out what had happened to him or do anything about it.

He fell back into sleep very quickly, and this time he dreamt he was back in the cavern, but this time, when he walked over to the gates, they did not move, and he was able to place his hand on one of the bars.

Far away, on a piece of land with relief similar to that of a desert, a pink-haired girl stared perplexedly down onto the body of a deer. Above her right shoulder, looking down, stood a man with silver haired and glasses which were currently reflecting the light and hiding his eyes. To his far left, balancing on a tree, with an expression barely concealing extreme boredom, was a boy with pale, smooth skin, dark, unreadable eyes, and absurdly cut hair which was tinted a dark blue. His head was tilted backwards as he examined the clear, blue sky, and his collarbone jutted out of his neck, looking slightly strange.

The girl took a deep breath in, and then sighed. What was she supposed to do? It was so close to death she might as well call it that. But she was expected to 'bring it back to life'. Maybe she could…

Her mind became immersed in the world of medical technicalities. She tentatively leaned forward, ready to try out any idea, knowing that if she left it too long, it would die and she would fail. She performed a hand seal and lent over the deer, focussing her chakra on its inter-vertebral pads and the cartilage and ligaments around its pelvic girdle. She found that though it did improve its body's condition, it would not prevent it from dying.

Then it struck her. Of course! How could she have been so retarded? She knew it wasn't the heart or lungs – she had checked those first, them being the most obvious areas where fatal problems could occur. She had also given a passing glance over the brain, it also being quite obvious. But she had forgotten the spinal cord! Of course, she had checked it over roughly, but not in a detailed enough manner, obviously, and it was the only place left where something this lethal could have occurred.

She was right, of course. She managed to fix the damaged spinal cord using her chakra, but it was quite tiring, and after she had completed the feat, she sat back, breathing deeply, with a few beads of sweat developing at the top of her forehead.

"Excellent work, Sakura!" she heard Kabuto exclaim. "You have been presented with a very difficult task, and really risen up to the challenge! Congratulations."

He smiled his signature cheesy smile, and Sakura smiled happily back at him. He then turned to Sasuke.

"Now, Sasuke, it is time for your challenge. Go to the sparring grounds. Orochimaru has arranged a special opponent for you. Sakura, you may return to your room and entertain yourself for a while."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. During Sakura's challenge, he'd had to sit around and watch, but during his challenge, she was simply allowed to return to her room? That was just unfair.

However, he didn't really care, and returned Sakura's wave, before he transported to the sparring ground, disappearing at the exact same time as Kabuto.

Sakura remained where she had been stood, and began walking back towards the door that would lead her inside, and then down the corridor to her room, wondering why nobody would ever teach her to transport, and deciding that it really wasn't just.

When she reached her room, she reached out a hand to open the door, but then paused and decided not to. What was the point? She'd just be sitting by herself doing nothing. Instead, she went to Tayuya's door. Maybe she could do something with her; boring and uncomfortable as Sakura was in her company, it was better than being alone. She opened the door, not even bothering to knock, to find the room empty.

She frowned. Why was Tayuya never here? She had tried paying her a visit a few times in that last month and a half, and she never seemed to be there. Sometimes Sakura thought that it wasn't even her room. She shook her head, and decided to carry on walking down the corridor to the meeting hall. Tayuya might be there or somebody else, hopefully more interesting. She had been there a few times since the first day she could remember, due to large feasts Orochimaru sometimes randomly organised, allowing her to meet some of the people living in the city, and get to know them.

However, very strangely, when she entered the meeting hall, she found it empty, devoid of all the people who normally lingered around in it.

She bit her lip, unsure of what to do. However, after spotting a small door across the hall, precisely parallel to the one she had come through, it did not take her long to decide. She would just go exploring.

She walked over to the door, excitement welling up inside her, with a small edge of fear which she managed to push away.

Once past the door, she found herself in a corridor which looked exactly the same as the one she knew was on the other side of the meeting hall. She walked along it, and soon, arrived at some doors, which looked exactly the same as the ones leading to her own, Sasuke's and Tayuya's bedroom. She hovered near them for a few minutes, dying to go inside, but prudence preventing her.

Eventually, she managed to quash her curiosity and carried on down the corridor. After a while, where on the other side of the meeting hall a door leading to the outside world lay, Sakura reached another set of doors like the ones she had just seen. This time, curiosity got the better of her, and she reached out towards one of the doors, her heart thudding against her chest.

Suddenly, she heard a strange noise. A click-clack-clop, as she saw a serving man, pushing a trolley covered with food emitting most delicious fragrances approaching her. When he saw her, his eyes widened.

"Sa-Sakura-san?" he stammered, "What are you doing here?"

His eyes followed her arm to the door, and he reached out, removing it.

"No no, Sakura-san, you must not do that! Orochimaru-sama will be very angry! You should go back to your room."

His eyes sneaked furtively around him.

"Y-Yes, I was just lost." she said, turning around and walking back towards the meeting hall. When she turned, she saw him gazing after her.

However, when she reached the first set of doors, she turned back, and stealthily stole up to where she had been before. The trolley, embellished with a white table cloth, was still there, whilst the man had disappeared. On impulse, she dived under the table cloth, and crouched on the bar supporting the bottom of the trolley, disguising her chakra so that he would not sense her presence upon return.

After what seemed like hours, but probably was minutes, she heard muffled voices grow louder, and then the trolley began to move, going click-clack-clop. After some time of steady rhythmic moving, accompanied by many sudden jolts and turns which had almost shaken Sakura off the trolley, she heard the grind of a door opening, and they entered the company of voices, and reached a halt once more.

"Why, thank you." she heard an all too familiar, slimy voice say. She then heard a pause, followed by footsteps, and the grind produced by the door. She guessed that the serving man had probably left the trolley with Orochimaru.

"Mmmm." she heard in a snake's voice. "Come Kabuto, eat."

"Thank you." So Kabuto was here as well. She heard the wet sound of a tongue, almost definitely Orochimaru's, slapping around his mouth.

"So now that we know that it will work," she heard Orochimaru speak, his voice muffled by the food in his mouth, "when can we perform the deed?"

"Well," she heard Kabuto clear his throat, "she needs to do some of it herself – that is, of course, why we have been training her for this last month and a half – and I think she is almost ready, but we should another fortnight, or at least a week, just to be on the safe side."

He paused for a moment.

"Of course, we cannot be sure if Tsunade herself is also aware of this, and even if she isn't, how important she holds the girl, as she always was an emotional woman, so we should do it as soon as possible, but I think a fortnight should be perfect-"

"And the boy?" Orochimaru cut in, sounding impatient, "There is absolutely no need for him?"

"Not at all." Kabuto replied confidently.

"Will he die? Or simply be much, much weaker?"

"Of that, I can't be sure," Kabuto responded, "but it is not of any real consequence, is it?"

"I suppose not." Orochimaru mused.

Sakura heard a long pause.

"A fortnight it is, then." she heard Orochimaru say, more evilly than she thought she'd ever heard him say anything.

Almost instantly, she heard the door grind open, and the trolley begun to move. In the time it was still moving, Sakura thought about what she had just heard. What did it mean? She supposed she must be the girl they were talking about, unless there was another girl here they had been training for the last month and a half. What was it that was going to happen in a fortnight? What was it that she was going to do? And who was the boy that they were talking about? The one who might die? Was it Sasuke? She was extremely confused, and really didn't know what to make of everything she had just heard.

After a while, she realised that the trolley had stopped moving some time ago, and she cautiously stepped out of it. She found herself alone, but in an area of the city she had never seen before. She sighed, deciding she would have to walk around until someone found her and told her where to go, and she began to wander.

Meanwhile, Sasuke had finished his training, and had to come to a special area of the city to be healed, after an exhilarating but challenging battle. He lacked the energy to transport, and simply headed towards his quarters on foot. He relived the moments of the battle in his mind, until, suddenly he bumped into a small form, and looked down to see Sakura, who looked at to see him. They stared at each other for a few seconds before simultaneously saying:

"Sakura? What are you doing here?"

and,

"Sasuke?! What are you doing here?"

Sakura decided to go first, and as Sasuke directed her towards their chambers, she explained the events of the afternoon to every last detail.

Nothing she said made sense to Sasuke, and when she asked him if he knew what any of it meant, she was met with silence.

He had no idea who or what they had been talking about, and when they reached their chambers, Sasuke followed Sakura into hers, and sat down on her bed as she did, both of them trying to make sense out of the conversation Sakura had overheard.

In a village far away, a blonde haired woman had just smashed a fist through the fifth desk that day.

"You WHAT?"

The spiky haired blond across from her winced, and repeated what he had just said.

"Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no! I'm going to have to cancel all the plans – SHIZUNE!" she shouted. When her dark haired companion entered she said, "Summon all the shinobi we were going to incorporate in the original plan, regardless of what they are doing now, and tell them we are going to leave in half an hour. This is an emergency, and the fate of Konoha, and possibly the whole world, relies on it. You, help her." she pointed towards the spiky haired blond.

When they nodded and exited, scared, but prepared to be efficient, Tsunade sighed and leant back in her chair. She knew this was much too soon, but there was nothing else to be done. She could only hope it would work.