Satori, Aoba and Hanako stood with Sabaki and her team. Sabaki didn't have a very pleasant look on her face. In fact, she looked suspiciously at Aoba and the other two.

"Are you saying we should stop recovering the bodies?" She asked.

Aoba maintained a conciliatory tone as he addressed his counterpart, because he knew that this was a delicate matter with her. "As you told us when we first arrived, the Soukutsu battle site is becoming more dangerous with the passage of time, and we aren't getting the resources we need to do half our job. Not to mention the chakra anomalies we have yet to explain."

"How do you propose we keep the scavengers from walking away with everything?" She asked.

Choosing his words carefully, the Jonin answered, "I will propose to Konoha that we have a large memorial service. We would invite every village who participated in this battle from all sides. Then we should back off and destroy the island. That would remove the lure for the scavengers."

Sabaki slowly considered this option. "This mass destruction would be tasteful, I presume."

"It may take a few days for every village to have their say but then we would be able to tear down this haunted graveyard."

"I think that this may be our best way out of this hopeless situation. However, in the meantime I think we should help out the Mist in covering the borders. Let's cut off the scavengers before they can escape."

"We're still looking for Junshin. Once we figure out what happened then we'll help."

Sabaki shook her head. "You're the one who told me that he was forsaking the dead in order to protect the living. I'm rather disappointed. We're out."

Sabaki and her team turned around and leapt away. Once they were gone, Aoba's shoulders slumped. He supposed that he wasn't following his own advice, but there was a difference between these dead ninjas and a teammate who had been missing for only a few hours. When that teammate was Junshin, his odds for surviving went up.

Aoba watched as the Sand team leapt out of sight. He turned to Satori.

"Ready to go out again?"

Satori nodded.

"Take Gintokin and Yukino with you."

"You got it." Satori turned away from Aoba and looked towards the group. "Gin, Yukino, were leaving."

Tenten ran up to her brother. He knew what she was thinking.



"Don't worry. I'll bring him back. It's a promise of a lifetime. "He said as he lifted his thumb and pointed it at her.

The three of them leapt away into the trees leaving Hanako, Tenten and Aoba standing there watching them until they were out of sight.

Junshin felt a burst of heat. It revived him from another blackout. He wasn't sure whether to be more concerned about the fact that he had blacked out again. He then realized that someone was behind him. It was the scavenger named Rurosha. She was about fifty feet away. She didn't say anything. She just stood there staring at him. He was waiting for her to attack or to do some action but she didn't react. He stared curiously at her. Then suddenly, a few kunai landed in front of Rurosha to which she turned her attention to the oncoming Mist attackers. The Mist ninjas outnumbered her three to one. Junshin noticed that one the kunai had an explosive tag attached to it that began to glow. He dove away to take cover from the explosion. Once everything settled, he waited for a few seconds before getting up to inspect the damage. He stood up and saw that Rurosha was still standing and the Mist ninjas were dead. The scavenger knelt down and grabbed one of the dead ninjas. She stared at him as if she was scanning him and that was exactly what she was doing. Her eyes turned a bright pink and looked the dead ninja up and down. Junshin was totally unaware of such a jutsu. Especially one that scavengers possessed.

The Leaf ninja was a captive audience for when the scavenger began to grow. The change wasn't instantaneous; it was like a flower opening its petals, something small and insignificant becoming impossibly grand and beautiful. The female scavenger began to change into a male ninja.

Some sort of Henge no jutsu? No, it's a mimic.

Whatever Rurosha was before, she had now studied the fallen Mist ninja and was turning into a copy of it, down to the smallest and largest detail. As Junshin watched this incredible transformation, he began to doubt his senses. Whether the mimicry was fake or genuine, it was an excellent job, Junshin had to admit. The process seemed almost mechanical. Was there motivation here or a mindless project? Why kill a person only to mimic it…unless the intention was to take its place? Or to cause confusion in a battle.

Junshin was now terrified for the safety of his teammates, but he was entranced by the marvel in front of him. Despite gnawing dread, he watched until the transformation was total and complete. There wre two identical Mist ninjas, identical down to scars, blood smears and rank markings on the uniform. Once again, he wished he was seeing an illusion.

Junshin looked away from the jarring sight and tried to reason it out. Suddenly, he was blinded by a flash of light, and the mimic ninja began to move away from its dead prey. Junshin winced, certain he was going to be killed, but the ninja leapt away from him. If he survived, he would tell the others what he had seen. However, he had to get to them first. He couldn't let his team fall into this doppelganger's 

trap. He started to walk towards the dead ninjas but then something exploded and sent him flying through the air towards the maw of the vortex.