Chapter 12

"OH!" Rock Lee said suddenly, interrupting Shikamaru's explanation of how everything was going to go down, "Maybe we could take him to the project? And then from there we could venture out."

"Interesting. We come up at a safe spot, to make sure nothing bad happens right away. The extra work could be a bit troublesome, but… yeah, this will work to our advantage," Shikamaru agreed, much to Lee's surprise.

"But didn't Kakashi and Gai and Jariya tell us not to go up there? They'll be really mad if they see us up in that area of the surface," Hinata worried, tapping her index fingers together nervously.

"Keh. Does that really matter? If this works, everything will change and they won't need to be up there doing that," Kiba said confidently. He'd lost so much already; he was ready to risk what little he had left for the cause.

"And maybe they'll have some fresh food up there… I can't even remember the last time I had ribs or lamb or pork or… well, any meat!" Choji said, just the thought of such foods making his mouth water.

"Fine, whatever," Gaara hissed, wanting to get the show on the road, "Let's just get going. We don't have time to waste, the sooner we do this the sooner we can change the future so none of this happens."

They all silently agreed and despite the medical ninja's protests, decided to go to this secret project that Lee had spoken of. Gaara didn't know exactly what that was yet, but he didn't care; soon enough, he'd see it for himself.

If it helped them find Naruto and Temari, he'd gladly take the detour. And it looked like the vote was nearly unanimous, so he'd be seeing what was going on up there whether he liked it or not.

The six of them weaved in and out of the massive crowd, trying to be as stealthy as possible. It was had because of the sheer amount of people, but somehow they managed. Led by Rock Lee, since he seemed to be the only one who really knew where to go, they soon came across something that most of them didn't quite expect.

"OK," said the eccentric boy, "We're here."

Gaara looked around in disbelief. This section of the city-sized room was no different from any of the others; they were all just standing there staring at an ordinary, everyday old dirt wall.

"What d'you mean, 'we're here'? This is just an regular dirt wall," he pointed out, afraid that this was just a big waste of time, a secret plot to keep him busy until Naruto returned.

"You're wrong," Hinata said meekly, "It's a protective barrier made mostly of genjutsu, so the likes of us can't get in. I've been practicing with Byakugan, I can see it."

"Just what I expected, for something this secretive. Hinata, could you tell us where the seals are?" Shikamaru asked, letting everything mull over in his head. This would take some serious thinking ahead; they had to be ready for any given situation.

"Actually, there's only just one, probably to make it easier for the ones working up there," she stated, to the others' relief, "And it's buried in the wall over there."

She pointed to the wall to their right, and Choji started to walk to the spot she was pointing to. He was stopped by one of his comrades, though, for this guy wanted to put his unusual skills to good use.

He got right to work at the task. With the strength and precision he learned when he was younger he clawed at the dirt, gradually eroding it more and more. Soon enough, just as Hinata had said, he was standing in front of a white piece of paper with black writing on it, a pile of dirt behind him.

"Well, that was easier than I thought it'd be. Choji, you can take it from here if you'd like," he said, stepping aside. Grumbling slightly about how he'd been pushed aside so easily Choji took his place, ready to tear back the seal.

"When do I do it so we can go?" he asked, eager to get out of there to see if there would be any good fresh food up there.

"Sorry, Choji, but you won't be coming with us. We need someone to replace the seal when we're gone to cover our tracks. Did I forget to mention that?" Shikamaru said dully. This was such a boring situation for him, but it was better than his usual routine.

"YEAH, you did forget!" Choji exploded, though he saw that when going up against such a composed opponent there was no way to win. He pouted, "You'd better bring me back some of that food! Do you know how long it's been since I had a juicy red apple?"

"Alright, alright. We'll bring you back your precious food. Just pull the damn thing off now, waiting here like this is such a drag. And the sooner you pull it off, the sooner we'll be off to retrieve your food," the sly boy tempted, knowing what he had to do to get the guy motivated.

That was all it took to get the food crazy boy moving, and in the blink of an eye the pathway was revealed. Where there had just been solid wall there was now a stairwell that led to the surface.

"Thank you, Choji," Hinata thanked, as she followed the others into the tunnel. He nodded an acknowledgement and as soon as it was safe to do so he replaced the seal.

A few lights flickered on along the walls, illuminating the passage. They were about to start on their journey when another idea came to Lee's mind, one that really had nothing to do with their mission.

As he scooped up his companions and piled them all on his back Lee shouted, "If I cannot piggy-back my friends up these stairs as fast as I can, I will do one thousand push-ups!"

With that he bolted forward, running as fast as he could up the stairs to the top. The sudden motion added to the fact that they weren't very well on his back nearly caused everyone to topple off, but they managed to hold on.

Gaara asked the others softly so that Rock Lee couldn't hear, "Does he do this often? It's a little bit…odd."

"Yeah, old habits die hard, I suppose. This is nothing, he can get much more… troublesome…" Shikamaru confirmed with a sigh, as he bounced up and down on Lee's back.

"Shikamaru, that may be something of an understatement," Kiba laughed, "You should have seen what he did a few days before Gaara came back… unbelievable!"

They all had a quiet laugh, imagining what on earth it was that he could have done. It had been something outrageous, that was for sure. But although he'd made a fool of himself, he'd entertained other refugees in the process, something that everyone needed in these harsh times.

Lee turned his head slightly to look back at them, a confused look on his face. He'd heard a whispered conversation, and wanted to be a part of it; just because he was their transportation, that didn't mean he didn't want in on stuff.

"What was that? I thought I heard something," he grunted between breaths, completely oblivious to the fact that they'd been talking about him.

"N-nothing, Lee. We were just… filling Gaara in on a few things, is all," Hinata said shyly. She wasn't exactly lying, and the odd individual seemed to buy it completely.

"Oh…" he said slowly, "Well OK then. Since we don't have anything to do right now, that's actually kind of a good idea. Don't mind me, please continue."

They didn't talk much after that, staying quiet for the rest of the ride. They were nervous that he happened to overhear their conversation again and this time actually realize what they were saying, he might be offended. So until they reached the end of the stairs, only the sound of Lee's feet hitting the ground with each step filled the air.

The rest of the journey really didn't take all that long; Lee was even faster than at the Chuunin Exams. But it figured, for years had passed since then and with everything that had been going on, it was only logical that he'd have gotten stronger.

"OK, we're here," he announced, coming to a halt on the platform atop the stairs, "Beyond here is the secret project they don't want anyone to know about. I can't believe I'm finally going to see what's out there…"

"Great," Hinata muttered, tapping her fingers together. She was nervous of what would happen if they were caught. It was such a secret project, so the punishment had to be severe.

Gaara thought for a moment and said, "Say, Lee? If this place is supposed to be so top secret, then why do you know all about it? What makes you so special?"

"Well…" Rock Lee started with a laugh, "A while back I had asked Master Gai if he could train me for the day, but he declined. He told me he was doing something secret. Every once in a while after that, he would accidentally let pieces of information leak, and I just kind of put those pieces together."

"So just dumb luck, then?" Gaara probed.

Sounding just a little offended Lee replied, "Yeah, I suppose you could say that if you really felt like it. But right now, none of that really matters. Wasn't it YOU who was so desperate to find Temari and Naruto?"

He had a point. It was him who had gathered them all together, he was the one who had to give this important information to the two ninja. With a nod he backed down, letting them continue their business.

"Where's the door?" Gaara asked, noticing that once again there was no doorway in sight.

"I believe it's to the left of us," Kiba said, sniffing the door intently, "The wall must fall away there or something, because Kakashi's scent is all over it. He probably uses his ninja dogs to repair it every time or something."

It made sense, but that wasn't what Gaara was thinking of at the moment. This whole time he'd known something was odd, but he just hadn't been able to put his finger on it. Kiba's last statement made him realize what it was, and he was suddenly slightly shocked.

"Speaking of ninja dogs, Kiba… where's Akamaru? I thought you two were inseparable, but I haven't seen him the whole time I've been here," Gaara asked as Lee formulated a plan on how to get them to the other side of the wall.

There was a moment of silence before his answer came. With a clear amount of sadness in his heart and voice Kiba said solemnly, "We've all lost something in this war. I lost Akamaru; he died to save me, and had it not been for him being there, I'd be the one in the ground right now…"

Gaara shut himself up, and a tense silence filled the area. He hadn't known that it was that serious, but now it really hit him; everything had really changed drastically for the worse, and it was all because of him. He nearly regretted opening his mouth.

"I've got it!" Lee shouted enthusiastically in hopes of breaking the awkward silence. It was too serious for his taste and he'd started to feel uncomfortable. Luckily, though, he didn't only do it to bring life back to the group, but he really had found the way out.

Everyone immediately turned to him and he knew that his plan had been a success. They all asked in unison, "What've you got?"

"Stand back," Lee said, and they all obeyed. Without any warning other than that he sprang into action, revealing the doorway to the outside.

With one swift and powerful swing of his arm his fist powered straight through the dirt. Slowly at first, but with increasing speed, the wall around his fist fell apart and crumbled to the ground. He'd revealed a very short tunnel that led to the outside.

None of them said a word as they traveled through this last stretch of tunnel, they were suddenly just very excited. Soon they stood at the end of the dirt-filled underground passage, wondrous looks on their faces.

None of them could have imagined that this was what everyone had been up to, but now it was staring them right in the face. It truly was an amazing sight to behold, especially after being stuck underground for the most part.

::end of chapter 12::

Yeah, so it's here! Trying to re-introduce some of the characters, just to show how much the place and the people who inhabit it really have changed. And plus it's a way to get Gaara around instead of sitting there in the medical office for a few chapters, so it's all good!

Anyway...have a few more chapters of this that I only have to type up, so those should be on time. Kind of still procrastinating with my novel, which I'm still kicking myself for, but I don't know... I just really want to write other things right now, I suppose... my classes are going good; I'm ahead in english, some of the stuff we make in cooking is to die for, film is really freaking fun. The only one I'm not really fond of is SS.

But...yeah. For the most part everything's coming along good. And you know what I just remembered? I've been writing this story for a little over a year (but not really because I put it on hold for half a year to finish some other stuff)!

So chapter 13 should be up soon, in about two weeks. Maybe less, depending on how much I get done in the coming weeks. But if I were you, I'd just count on the two weeks thing.