In the midst of dodging attacks from weird creatures, Saori was mentally screaming his head off. In fear? Nope. Regret. He was cursing himself, calling himself stupid for succumbing to curiosity. Now he knew why it was such a creepy jutsu with only 2 of survival. Firstly, ordinary weapons and techniques do not harm those weird creatures. Even his sword, named Soul, that harm spiritual objects only did little effect on them. Secondly, those people whose first instinct was to run away are damn smart people. The longer you stay, you would realise, there was no way out. The weird creatures, once pissed off, multiply every seconds and a weak barrier that was around the circle strenghten every moment. He would either die with his soul taken away or squashed to death. He knew the structure of the jutsu well as the original came from his clan. Orochimaru changed a little bit of here and there and apparently, he changed the jutsu a lot. Those creatures were not soul reapers. They gave a different aura. Who knows what they are. He was scratching his brain for some solution and something actually came. "Oh well, might as well give it a try..." he shrugged, digging into his pocket, revealing a... brush?

The team swung into action as the serpents started to attack. Sakura wanted to give a killer punch to one of the serpents but her arm was stopped by fingers holding back her arms back. She turned to see Haruhi shaking her head at her. A pleading eyes on her face, telling her not to do anything reckless. Sakura released her fist, watching the rest beating up the snake. The huge Akamaru was biting one of the serpents, making it hiss. Sakura sighed. She knew the rest could handle it without her. A lighting strike made her looked up. A raven haired, clutching a blade, sliced the serpents easily and landed in front of Sakura. The guys watched him warily. His eyes, now no longer red, gazed into the pink haired green. She gazed back.He was about to say something when he was interrupted by a loud whine.

"Damn you, Sasuke!!" a fuming blue eyed blond screamed. "That was my kill!! You stole it!!"

Sasuke faced him sideways with a smirk on his face. He folded his arms. "Too bad." was all he said. That two words made Naruto even mad. He began to hurl a chain of childish curses at the raven haired. Sasuke ignored him and turned back to Sakura. "Are you alright?" he asked in a soft voice that could barely be heard. Sakura smiled at his expected soft side and nodded. He began to walk away. The energetic blond stopped his mad hurling of curses. "Where the hell do you think you are going?!" he screamed.

Sasuke continued walking only stopping when Haruhi grabbed his shirt, asking him to stay. He turned, looking at her for a reason. Haruhi was twiddling with her fingers. She looked up, her eyes were wet. She was about to cry. "Please stay with me... just for awhile." she choked. "Till nii-sama comes back." She looked at him pleadingly. Sasuke let out a sighed. He did not like the idea of staying around with his old comrades. It only made him feel even more uncomfortable, reminding him of the past. But he agreed anyway. A smile came back to her face again. He felt a sudden pushed behind and Naruto's face popped beside him. "Sasuke! I'll drag you back to Konoha no matter what!" the boy grinned. Sasuke just stood there silently.

Woohoo! I'm such a genius!

His mind was filled with praises for himself. He finally managed to break the circle... all thanks to a brush. For a full hour, he had been trying to add some strokes to the lettering around the cave, hoping it would do something, and surprisingly it did. The circle was breaking up and those creatures retreated back into their world, hissing. It seemed that he had totally changed the jutsu and created another one that seemed to make the area grew... flowers. Well, it was just flowers. That was what he thought, until it bit him. He yowled in pain as he lifted his leg and rubbed his bitten ankle. He could feel sand falling onto his hair. The first thing in his mind was Uh oh. He had forgotten one important thing. The cave was falling apart and with the barrier that was holding it up slowly disappearing, the whole place was collapsing.

Sasuke appearance did not bother them anymore. For the past few minutes, he had been standing there silently as Naruto bombarded him with questions annoyingly while Sakura just stared at him. The rest just mind their own business. Kakashi was reading his beloved book. He suddenly snapped it close.

"I thought you had retired" kakashi said out loud, to no one in particular. Everyone looked at him. A man with an ANBU mask and Konoha's headband appeared out of nowhere.

"A personal mission." the man said. " Your mission has already ended. Why don't you return back to Konoha?"

Kakashi was silent. Naruto was the one who replied. "We are waiting for someone." the blond said. The ANBU nodded a few moments as he eyed everyone. He stopped at Kakashi.

"You don't have to wait." he said and in an ordering voice, ordered the rest to return back to Konoha. Naruto wanted to argue but Kakashi motioned him to silent. The ANBU continued. "Take those two with you. Hokage-sama had been informed about their arrival in Konoha soon."

Kakashi eyes went wide for a moment. Everyone was surprised too. Haruhi cocked her head, confused. "Why must I go there too?". The ANBU just kept silenced. Kakashi called the rest to gather and prepare to leave. Everyone started moving towards him except Haruhi and Sasuke who stay put. "I'm not going back" Sasuke said as the ANBU faced him. Haruhi stood rooted to the ground and shook her head firmly. "I'm waiting for niisan!"

"Just go." the man said to Haruhi. "I'll bring him to you."

"That will not be necessary. I could smell your stinky smell a kilometre away." Saori was sitting down at the edge of the cliff, pinching his nose. His deep purple hair swayed with the wind, revealing his other eye. A pale shade of purple, a contrast to his right's red. " Stop acting so young and tough, old man!"

The 'ANBU' break his henge, from a man, he became an old bent man with white hair and long beard. Everyone's jaw dropped except for Kakashi and those who had not met the man earlier. Ino was especially shocked. After all, it was her grandfather.