Naruto

Eric, Lee and I ran silently across the roof tops in the night, fully cloaked in our black uniforms. We were closing in on the contractor. I saw him up ahead trying to escape from us across the roof tops. I took the lead in chasing him. He dropped to the ground where the roofs ended and we entered the burnt district that surrounded the inner wall. We landed on the ground and continued our chase. He turned a corner and came to a stop, finding himself trapped. As we cornered him he turned to face us. Most people would have been scared, tried to reason or flee, instead a contractor was ready for a fight, ready to kill without any emotions holding them back. The contractor before us looked ready to fight, but then changed to a more relaxed stance and laughed at us. I saw Lee and Eric look at each other masked faces, not knowing how to react. Movement around us caught my eye and when I looked around I saw more contractors. Ten of them. It was an ambush and I had led my team right into it. How stupid. They all smiled at us cruelly. I had heard the reports of teams being ambushed and killed. We prepared for the fight.
Through the chaos I struggled to keep track of Lee and Eric. As far as I could tell they were having a tough time. I had four of them after me. I fended off each of their attacks, but I couldn't keep this up. I got a hit to the face with such force it matched Sakura's strength and I was blown back into a stone pillar that remained standing in the burnt rubble. I lay stunned on the ground for a moment struggling to get in any air

"Second!" I heard Eric call. I could see him turning to run for me, but was quickly blocked by two more contractors. My attackers stood surrounding me. I struggled to get up as quickly as I could, but the person with Sakura's strength landed a kick to my gut. The pillar behind me cracked from the force. I coughed up blood and was surprised my spine hadn't snapped in half. He reeled back his leg to kick me again as the others stood and laughed. I rolled out of the way and just in time too as the person's kick hit the pillar and snapped it. My back was killing me more than any of my other injuries. I was too slow and they were upon me again. Eric was having a hard time in the distance and I couldn't see Lee anymore. I dodged more blows, but it wasn't enough. The man with the immense strength landed a kick to my knee and it buckled under me and as I was falling to the ground he grabbed my head and brought it down upon his knee. My body went numb, my vision went blotchy and my ears rang out. I couldn't move to get away this time. There was a blinding light that engulfed us all. I wasn't sure if it was my eyes playing tricks on me or not, but I couldn't do anything to stop the light. Then I was out.

When I woke my eyes were blurry and my ears felt blocked. I was lying on the cold hard ground alone. I got up on all fours and had to pause before standing properly. I looked around me. I didn't know this area and I was alone. I looked around to see ruined buildings, old blood stains on the ground, weeds creeping in through the cracks of the rubble and a layer of fog covering the area making it an eerie place. I strained my eyes to see through the fog and I saw past the buildings and rubble to the wall surrounding the area. It encircled the entire area, but it wasn't as large as the wall I was used too. Then it hit me. I was trapped in a dangerous place. A place no one had come back from alive. I felt my heart beat faster in my chest and I began to sweat. I didn't know what to do. Time passed me but remained still at the same time. I was lost and found. I screamed.

I woke in my dark room. I had this nightmare often, but it no longer got a reaction from me. I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling.


Sakura

I had almost forgotten what the weather was like around Lady Blue's fortress. I knew that I was here to work and complete a mission blah and blah, but I was excited and nervous about seeing Naruto again. Had something actually happened to him that Lady Blue didn't tell us? I wanted to find out now. I could have run off from Lee and made my way through the fortress, but the place was a maze. Even Lee had admitted that after six months he still got lost on an almost daily basis, but I was sure that when Naruto learnt that I was here that he would find me, that's if he was alright.

Lee led me through to Lady Blue's hall that was empty other than her seat. She sat in a extravagant blue and black trimmed dress looking as beautiful and as formidable as ever. I greeted her and she did likewise with a pleasant manner.

"Sakura, how nice to see you again. I didn't know you were a medical ninja," she remarked "if I had know I would have asked you to have stayed" she smiled softly and giggled girlishly.
I smiled back to her. Lady Blue briefed me on why I was here and what my duties would be. I already knew all of this already but I nodded alone as she spoke, before she dismissed me and said she would give a more detailed briefing when the other medical ninja's had arrived.
Lee walked out with me.

"So what do you want to do now?" he asked me as we walked aimlessly down the hall. I wasn't use to having freedom here, but I smiled at Lee at the idea.

"I would like to see Eric and Second" I replied

"Right. Well in that case we better find Eric first. We will never find Second without his help" he beamed at me and stepped ahead to take the lead through the fortress.

We found Eric in the staff dining room. It was a vast hall filled with wooden seats ad benches and a kitchen on one wall. Eric sat at a bench by himself and we happily joined him. He wasn't eating, but was reading the village's local newspaper. Without looking up from the paper he greeted Lee.

"Hey Lee. Have you seen this?" he remarked, tapping the paper before him with the back of his hand, "all these reports of –" he looked up then and froze when he saw me.
"Oh Sakura" he beamed at me across the bench "fancy seeing you here again"

"Lady Blue asked me to get her" Lee commented almost proudly. He had mentioned during the trip how excited he was that this was his first mission outside of his team.
"Didn't you notice I was gone?" he asked looking proud of himself

"Oh what? No" replied Eric looking next to me at Lee who's bubble of pride just got popped. Eric turned back to me with a broad smile again, "so why are you here again Sakura?"

"I'm here as a medical ninja" I replied and Eric looked impressed

"Oh really" replied Eric still beaming

Beside me Lee snapped out of his moment of depression.
"Oh Eric we came to ask you where Second is. Sakura wants to see him again too"
Eric smile vanished at the mention of Second.

"Not here you two. Come with me" and with that Eric stood, picked up his paper and leaded the way out of the dinning hall. We followed him silently back to his room that he shared with Lee. We entered and he closed the door behind us. Eric put down his paper on a small table against the far wall and gestured for us to sit down. Seeing as there were no seats in the room I sat next to Lee on the edge of one of the beds while Eric sat opposite us on the other bed.

"Lee, while you were gone Second was taken away" he said very seriously

"Taken away?!" exclaimed Lee in surprise

"Shhh" hissed Eric. Once Lee settled Eric continued, "Lady Blue and First came and talked to him the other night. I don't think they knew I was there. Second was in the training field by himself when First came over and held a weapon at him. The Lady Blue came out. I couldn't hear them but she spoke something to him then walked away. Second followed her and First followed him with his weapon drawn. I haven't heard from him since"

"What?" whispered Lee

"I don't know where he is, but I think it has something to with our last mission"

"What about your last mission?" I cut in

"We were ambushed" replied Eric

"Like all those other teams that have died?" I asked cutting in again before he could continue.

"Yeah" replied Eric and I felt a chill run through me.
"We were chasing a contractor, but he led us into a trap" beside me Lee looked down at the ground obviously remembering the night Eric was talking about. "We were outnumbered and being beaten the crap out of, including Second. We got split up, but I was close enough to see what happened. Second was beaten to the ground. I broke free from the other contractors and ran to help him, but then there was this blinding white light and then when it was gone Second and the contractors were gone. All of them just vanished" He took a moment before continuing. It was clear that like Lee he didn't like remembering that night.
"it was four days till we found Second. And of all places, we found him inside Hell's Gate"

"Inside Hell's Gate? But I thought you couldn't get into there?" I cut in yet again

"That's just it. The wall was designed so no one could get in, but there he was, inside Hell's Gate. We don't know how he got there and we don't know how he survived either. Lady Blue had sent men in their before to investigate and every time they all died. No one has ever come out of Hell's Gate alive till Second did"
I was speechless.
"When we found him and brought him back. Lady Blue ran all sorts of tests on him, but nothing was wrong and he came back to work"

"How long ago was this?" I asked

"It happened about two months ago" replied Eric.
Eric fell silent. I had never seen him unhappy before. I almost didn't think he could be unhappy.

"What do you think happened in there?" asked Lee, breaking the silence.

"Who knows" replied Eric

"I heard that the gate can screw with your head" commented Lee
Eric shot him a look telling Lee to shut up.
But after finding all of this out one question remained in my mind.
Why hadn't Lady Blue mentioned any of this in her letters?