Now, I really wish I had an exuse for the long, long, long period of time that this story wasn't updates. Unforturently, I don't have an exuse. I have a reason that it wasn't updates. Here's what happened:

1) Over the summer, but friend was bugging me to finish Bleach since I got up to episode 11 then got bored, so I watched the rest of the anime, then I got so into it that I read the manga, and then started reading Bleach fan fictions, and then whenever I went to go work on this story, I thought "Yuck, I'm bored. Naruto's boring." If anyone, blame my friend.

2) School started, so my time that I could work on this story shortend dramatically, not that I was even working on it by that time anyway.

3) The filler arcs in both Naruto and Bleach were beginning to kill me, so for a time, I had a no-anime lifestyle. It SUCKED.

4) We have an anime club at my school, so every club meeting we get together and watch a new anime. I took a large interest in an anime called D-N-Angel, so I started watching that. Then, as what happened with Bleach, I liked it so much that I went out of my way to read the manga. Seriously, it only has, like, 39 chapters until you get to the point that the manga-ka hasn't written anything more. Well, that only pushed Naruto farther and farther away.

5) This is when I got back into Naruto. I found out that the fillers would totally and utterly END in February. Yay!!!!! I jumped for joy! And this I jumped in fear when I realize how little I had done on this story. Yikes.

And now I end my reason. So, we're into the really tough plot now. I left you guys with a huge cliff hanger last time, so... yeah.

Meh, I've got nothing else to tell you. Sadly, I've started on another story. I couldn't get it out of my head and as ArimaSkitty puts it: "I can't find the place where the plot bunnies breed so I can't shoot them." Ah well... On to the story!!!

Note: I do NOT own Naruto or any of it's characters. Kishimoto-san does. All I own is this plot, and Element Users and the many, many characters I have come up with for this fan fiction. Because that's all it is, a piece fiction from a fan.

Chapter 25:

Tides Turn

Ino really hated it when Sakura went on a mission without telling her. Sure, she had her own team, but they hardly ever went out on missions together. Asuma would either just take Shikamaru, or just take Chouji, and he hardly ever just took Ino. On a couple occasions he would take Ino and Shikamaru, or Shikamaru and Chouji, but they never really did anything as a group anymore. Right now, Asuma was with the other jounin and Chouji had been sent on another mission (lucky guy), leaving Shikamaru and Ino to be slowly killed by the horror that is commonly known as boredom.

She was sitting on top of a very large hill, watching the clouds go by. Shikamaru lay beside her, sleeping the afternoon away. Ino's eyes sometimes wandered from the clouds to the village and the landscape around it which could be seen from where she sat. Her long, blonde hair flowed freely down her back and onto the grass. Shikamaru stirred beside her, finally coming back into the waking world. Ino giggled as the chuunin examiner sat up and yawned, stretching away the sleep from his limbs.

"How long has it been?" he asked drowsily, staring blankly in front of him.

"At least a good two hours," Ino said, resting her head on his shoulder. "I have no idea what time it is though."

Shikamaru looked up into the sky. "Judging on the sun's position, it's around two o'clock. I guess we should be getting back to the village now."

They both got up and headed back to the village, staring at everything that wasn't the person beside them. They liked each other, maybe even loved each other; anyone could see that. They just didn't believe it themselves. Wasn't it only three years ago that they had hated each other? Ino couldn't accept the fact that she liked Shikamaru and Shikamaru liked her. Shikamaru couldn't accept the fact that he liked Ino and that Ino liked him. There was only one word that could describe these two lovebirds: hopeless.

Shikamaru looked around the village, surveying things at random. Most of his attention was on the demolition site. There, the building that had revealed the Element User was being torn down. Faintly, he wondered who the Element User was. There were only a selected few who actually remembered what had happened that night, Shikamaru not being one of them. There was also the case that Sasuke was missing again. He didn't really want to add two and two together, and he really didn't like his results, so that's probably why he didn't notice that the only people out and about had forehead protectors. What's more, he didn't notice what village these forehead protectors came from: the Hidden Village in the Clouds.

Ino become aware of the cloud ninja's presence at once so, assuming Shikamaru knew, changed their course for the Hokage's office. She was aware of the enemy's stares but she kept going, picking up speed with every step and dragging Shikamaru with her along the way. Eventually he got tired of being pulled around and forced her to stop, looking at her with bored eyes.

"Why the heck are we going to fast?" he complained, shrugging his shoulders, eyebrows raised.

Ino's eyes widened and she pointed to just behind Shikamaru. He turned, only to come face to face with a kunai pointed at his forehead. Ino gasped as another ninja pointed two kunai at her temples, their points just touching the skin. Thinking fast, Shikamaru threw two smoke bombs at his feet and in an instant, he and Ino were running as fast as they could towards the Hokage's office.

"What's going on around here?" Shikamaru said breathlessly, glancing behind him. "Everything was fine when we left; how could things have changed so quickly?"

"I don't know," Ino said in the same breathless voice. "I just hope everyone's in the shelter."

Once they were inside the building, they truly noticed how quiet things were. The edifice that was the Hokage's office was completely deserted save for a few dust balls. Walking around, their footsteps echoed ominously in the empty building. When they came to the door that led into the room where Tsunade usually was, they found the door slightly ajar and the room completely empty.

"Hello?" Ino called out as Shikamaru examined the state of the area.

All the windows were open and blowing the curtains that usually covered them. Papers fluttered in the breeze, scattering them in every direction. Now Shikamaru really wished someone from Kurenai's cell was here. They specialized in tracking, with the Byakugan, a dog's nose (maybe two, he wasn't absolutely certain if Kiba was fully human) and many, many insects. Asuma's team specialized in distractions and/or keeping the enemy in one place by possessing the shadow of one or all of the enemy's team, sneaking into the mind of one of the adversary, possibly the leader, and if things got ugly, they had a giant human boulder to crush them. Kakashi's squad was a quick-finish sort of team, meaning the specialized in finishing the enemy off as quickly as possible. Put together, all three groups made the perfect combination: Track the enemy, distract any followers and finish them off without giving time for them to get away.

"Shikamaru!" Ino yelled, snapping him out of mid-thought. "I found a note from Hokage-sama, though it looks like someone found it before me."

It was in a simple code, and after Shikamaru had decoded it, Ino read the note out aloud:

"Dear reader,

If you are reading this, that means I have already left to prevent a war. I have brought Hyuuga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee and Haruno Sakura with me, in case you were wondering where those four were. In the event that you are here to inform me that the village has been taken over by ninja from another village, please do not be alarmed and send the messenger bird hidden under my desk with a note stating who you are and how bad the infiltration is. If you are here to inform me of any other reason, you're fired.

-Tsunade"

While Ino finished the letter off, Shikamaru checked under the desk for the messenger bird only to find a closed, empty cage full of feathers. Now he really, really wished at least one person from Kurenai's cell was here; Kiba would probably be best. Then he got an idea.

"Ino, you said Sakura taught you basic medical techniques, correct?" he asked.

The blonde nodded. "I'm not as good as Sakura and probably never will be, but yeah, I know the basic stuff. What about it?"

"I know it sounds really stupid, but do you think you could try to get a heart-beat out of these feathers?" the examiner said, holding up the cage of feathers.

Now Ino was confused. "You can't get a heart-beat out of an inanimate object Shikamaru; even you should know that."

"But could you at least try?" he asked again. "Just use a technique that's specially designed for starting a heart-beat. You can do that, can't you?"

"Okay, I can try…"

While Ino took out the feathers in the cage, Shikamaru prepared the note that would be sent. He wrote it in a more complex code than what Tsunade had written in, but it was still fairly easy to decode.

"What the…!"

Shikamaru turned around to see a flutter of brown feathers swooping in and out of the open windows. Ino's eyes were wide with fear as they followed the pattern of the feathers. After a couple more swoops, the feathery mass of nothing landed on the Hokage's desk and grabbed the note Shikamaru had written. Then, as if it hadn't existed in the first place, it vanished. A split second later, the door was smashed down and a couple dozen cloud ninja entered the room, kunai in hand. The only thing was, there was no one and nothing in the room. Shikamaru and Ino had vanished.

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Sakura slowly opened her eyes, trying to disperse the blinding light that was covering what was really going on. All was silent; there wasn't a single sound save for her own rasping breaths.

"Am I… dead?" she thought wearily. "I lived a good life, didn't I? I have no regrets." "No regrets," she said out loud, pleased to hear her own voice at the least.

"S-sakura! You're a-alright!" a different voice exclaimed, clearing the white mist like a veil being lifted up and away.

Sakura blinked. Hinata was kneeling over her, a cut decorating her left cheek. Sitting up, she could fully take in the scene. Lee was lying protectively on top of Gai unconscious while Naruto lay a little farther away. Sasuke was no where to be seen, but they were surrounded by a low-roofed, blue flame-like dome that seemed to be repelling any attack made on it. A few stray kunai lay on the ground in a few places, but there was no blood, indicating no one had been injured

"What… happened?" Sakura asked slowly, trying to take in the situation. "We should all be dead. I saw those kunai. They defiantly hit us."

Hinata nodded. "I… didn't see the e-entire thing, but I know Sasuke's… friends are h-ere now, so maybe they had something t-to do with it."

At this Sakura began looking wildly around, trying to find these people in which Hinata was speaking about. That's when she noticed that she didn't see Sasuke because he was behind her. His hair tie had come undone so now his hair was just a mass of raven-blue that covered most of his face. He was kneeling, his right arm extended above him so that his finger-tips just touched the top of the dome. His head was lowered so she couldn't see his eyes, but going on knowledge she had gained during her medical training, she could tell he was in a lot of pain.

"Sasuke?" she whispered, crawling over to him. "You alright?"

Sasuke lifted his head slightly, allowing his eyes to make sense of the blob he was seeing. After confirming that it was human, he began to make out the colours, which lead to confirming the blob as Sakura.

"Now that's two people awake…" he muttered to himself. "Sakura, I'm going to have to ask you to take care of Naruto and Lee."

And with that, his body ignited and became part of the barrier, thus disappearing. Hinata blinked after him and let out a sigh of relief as the roof of the barrier grew enough that a normal person could stand up. With the extra room, Naruto and Lee began to stir, who Sakura tended to immediately.

Within a couple minutes, both boys were fully awake, Naruto more than Lee. The young jounin was still devastated by the lost of his beloved sensei, but no one had the heart to tell him that what had been done was the right thing to do. If they had let him live, they would be dead right now. Sure, they could have just knocked him out, but what then? Would they leave him to wake up and find them again, or would they take him with them and take the risk that when he woke up he would dispose of them? Hinata wouldn't forgive herself though. As soon as Lee started crying again, she buried herself in her arms and wouldn't respond to anything.

"Hinata?" Naruto tried for the umpteenth time. "Please Hinata, don't cry. Seeing you sad only makes me sad."

After there was no response, he sighed. "I give up! Sulk all you want about it, but nothing's going to change. What's done is done and Lee's just going to have to get over it."

And with that, he stood up and walked away, not noticing the Hyuuga girl flinch at his words. Sakura watched her for a while longer before turning her attention to Lee. The poor boy was in a seiza position (1) with tears flowing down his face and landing on Gai's. Naruto had a point though: Lee was just going to have to get over it. There was nothing anyone could do anymore, and no matter how much he cried, nothing would change.

She sighed heavily and stared into space. Sasuke had left quite a while ago, if indeed he had left in the first place. There was no way to tell time right now, but Sakura predicted it had been at least half-an-hour since she awoke. Hinata had been too traumatized to talk much after she woke Sakura up, so the medic-nin had no way of knowing who the other Element Users were. Sure, she had seen them on the 'Discovery Night' as it was being called now, but what she really needed to know was how close Sasuke was to these people. She didn't know much about the Element Users, but she knew enough to know that they were reincarnated every hundred years with their memories in tact, and that was reason enough to want to know how really close he was to them.

"Geez," she thought to herself. "Just when you think you understand him, he pops up with something new…"

"So, you guys bored yet?"

Sakura jumped slightly and turned around to see a dark-haired boy with piercing onyx eyes standing behind her. He wore the same type of cloak (2) as Sasuke except it was light blue. Oddly enough, he had a fish bowl strapped to his back.

"So this must be the Element User of Water," Sakura concluded silently. "What ever happened to the mark on his forehead? Come to think of it, Sasuke didn't have one either…"

"So who are you suppose to be?" Naruto asked curtly, almost making Sakura fall flat on her face.

"Me?" the other boy questioned teasingly. "Well, I'm Mishanata Sota of the Foaming Sea, but everyone just calls me Sota. And who are you?"

"Stop teasing him Sota," another boy said, suddenly appearing out of nearly nothing. "I believe that is the one called 'Narato'."

Naruto blinked. "I know you! You're that Kohaku guy Sasuke was talking to that night! And my name's not 'Narato,' its 'Naruto'."

"It matters not," Kohaku said, waving his hand dismissively. "What matters now is getting out of the predicament that is laid out before us."

"Stop trying to talk smart Kohaku," a pink-haired girl said from behind him. "We all know you're just trying to put on a good act for the Normal Borns."

Sakura straightened up suddenly. She walked over and examined Kaiya's hair, looking at it to the smallest detail. Never in her life had she seen hair that was so close to the colour of her own. It looked exactly like her hair, except Kaiya seemed to have bleached it lightly, draining it of its rich colour.

"Um… can I help you?"

It was then Sakura realized how stupid she must look. She muttered an apology before going over to Hinata to check on the Hyuuga girl. She was still sitting with her head in her knees just as Sakura had seen her last time. She didn't even seem to have noticed that there were more people in the barrier than just the people she knew.

Lee was somewhat dazed at all the people coming into the barrier, and his eyes were dull and lifeless. Naruto took one look at him and knew he was never going to snap out of it. What was more, if he did snap out of it, he would probably kill Hinata, and that wasn't a chance he was willing to take.

"Seven people," he said in a far voice. "There are seven people here now…"

"Um… Lee?" Hinata said timidly, looking over at him and speaking of the first time in a while. "There are only six people if you don't count yourself."

"No, he's right," Kaiya said, running her fingers through her hair. "Sasuke's friend is here too. He's been watching you guys for a long while now."

After everyone exchanged confused looks, a shimmer of green spread from the ground up and Shinzaburo Toshiro flickered into view. His red hair came to about his shoulders, and his moustache had been curled at the ends. His ANBU mask was on top of his head, and a large grin decorated his face.

"So you knew," he said smoothly. "Well, it makes sense. I'm not here to arrest you or anything," he added quickly. "Uchiha-san has been on quite a few of my recon missions as a captain. He has become a good friend, and I just wanted to help."

Naruto grumbled something about wanting to kill them the last time they had met, but thought better of saying anything out loud. Lee's eyes cleared from the fogginess they had been enshrouded in for the past little while, only to see Gai's body once more. He held back his tears this time, although all eyes were on him and Hinata.

"What happened… happened," he said calmly. "Nothing can change what has happened in the past. Gai-sensei, no; Gai-sama will always be in my heart."

Everyone lowered their heads in a silent prayer, and Lee wept the last tears he could shed.

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Shikamaru and Ino weren't sure what was going on. One second they were in the Hokage's office, the next they were in a jungle oasis jam-packed with jounin from the five Great Shinobi Countries. They quickly hid themselves in the foliage of the trees, setting up a box of camouflage sheets and concealing themselves inside.

"What the heck is going on?" Ino whisper-yelled. "Why are all the jounin here? I don't get it!"

"I got here at the same time as you," Shikamaru reminded her. "I have no clue what's going on either, but for now we're going to have to play it cool until we can figure out what is going on. Got it?"

Ino nodded slowly before lifting up a corner of one of the sheets to see if anything had calmed down. Suddenly a high pitched whistle erupted from somewhere to their right, sending all of the jounin in that direction.

"Hollow tree in the third quadrant," a somewhat familiar voice shouted. "Four from Konoha are with him. Orders say that no survivors are to be left and…"

There was suddenly a scream, and then there was nothing. Shikamaru and Ino held their breath, daring the slightest sound to break the silence. As he strained his ears, the Nara could just barely make out the sounds of thousands upon thousands of kunai being thrown. He looked at Ino, and she nodded her head to show she had also heard it.

After they had sat like that for a grand total of five minutes, they crawled out of the camouflage. The oasis-forest was deathly silent. Like the calm before the storm. Thinking smart, Shikamaru put up a transformation to make Ino and himself appear to be jounin from the Hidden Village in the Sand. They headed off in the direction of where the last sound had been, moving east through the fading light.

"It'll be harder to see when it gets too dark," Shikamaru muttered to himself. "Better hurry…"

"You two!"

The pair stopped dead in their tracks, whirling around to face the person who had shouted. To their amazement, Tsunade stood behind, glaring at them.

"Can you tell me where the other jounin are?" she asked suspiciously.

"Tsunade-sama, it's us, Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru," Ino whispered, dispelling the transformation.

"And I think you probably know more than us about the current situation," the Nara said, dispelling his transformation as well. "For starters, why are all the jounin here in the first place?"

The older women hesitated for a moment, thinking over her options. She could not tell them what was going on and have them go home unharmed, but then they wouldn't be able to assist her. If she did tell them, the two would involve themselves in something far beyond they're level of knowledge - well, Shikamaru would be okay – and could even wind up dead. She didn't like the looks of the latter, but the former looked equally disapproving, if not more.

She sighed. "I came here with Sasuke, Sakura, Lee, Naruto and Hinata to meet with the Raikage to discuss the attack she sent out the other day. As it turns out, she just wants the Element User of Fire who came with me so that she could… hypnotise them as she did to the Element User of Lightning."

Shikamaru nodded in acknowledgment but noted the fact that Tsunade had taken care not to mention the Element User's name, or the reason that Sasuke was with her. "So… did you get separated or something?"

Tsunade sighed again and shook her head. "I told them to hide themselves so that the Raikage and I could talk, however that Element User of Lightning dispelled the barrier that was here and let in all those jounin. I didn't know what else to do, so I just ran and hid. Then I saw you two, and then you told me who you were and the rest is history."

Ino had a worried look on her face. "I think we should find the others from Konoha first. Then we can worry about the jounin and the Raikage and stuff."

"I agree," Shikamaru said. "We heard someone that sounded sort of like Gai in an eastern-ly direction. I think that's our best bet."

It was now too dark to see, but the Leaf Shinobi had no problem following one another through the darkness. They didn't have to see each other. A strange blue light was their destination, but what exactly that blue light was was starting to bug them. About twenty metres away from the source of the glow they had to stop their progress to avoid being seen by the jounin that were surrounding it. They made up a camouflage tent and quickly found a common hare for Ino to scout from. (3)

She didn't really enjoy being a rabbit, but given the circumstances, Ino would rather take her chances as a hare than as a human with the jounin. The only problem was movement. Hares jumped in quite an odd fashion, and it took a good five minutes to get use to the hopping rhythm of it. She jumped past the first couple jounin from the Hidden Village in the Stones with ease, pausing every few bounces as any normal rabbit should to sniff the air for nothing in particular. The next rings of jounin were from the Hidden Village in the Mist. A scary bunch to be sure. One of them looked Ino's way and grinned in an evil way, sending shivers up her tiny little spine. Suna and Konoha were easy to pass just as the stones were. She almost felt a pang of disappointment that Asuma didn't even take his eyes off of… what ever it was that he was looking at while she passed. The jounin of the Hidden Village in the Clouds encircled the closest ring of jounin. Past them was the source of the blue light.

As entrancing as it was, Ino couldn't help but feel drawn towards it. The closer she go to it, the more she became aware of the jounin's eyes upon her. Soon she was close enough to touch it, but thought better of it seeing as it was fire. Many kunai scattered the edges around it, leading Ino to the conclusion that this was where all the sound was coming from.

"Psssst."

Ino panicked inside, but managed to just casually twitch her ears in the direction of the sound.

"Pssssst. Hare, over here."

Having no choice now, Ino turned her little rabbit head to see another rabbit facing her. This rabbit was tinged a yellow-ish colour, and its ears were in the shape of lightning bolts. Its forehead bore the kanji of 'lightning', but it had a gentle look to it.

"If you want inside, please follow me," it said in the rabbit tongue, forcing Ino to search through her host's mind to find the translation.

Ino followed the Element animal to the back side of the fire dome, where a small opening just big enough for a hare Ino's current size to slip through.

"My name is Toki," the rabbit said to her in Japanese, alerting the jounin. "Please go inside, and listen to what Uchiha-san will say. Then leave this animal inside and return to your own body. Please hurry, there isn't much time until the hypnosis becomes irreversible."

The jounin took out a couple kunai and threw them in Ino and Toki's direction. Toki evaded and pushed Ino through the gap, opening her into a new world. As soon as she was through, the aperture closed and Ino lost sight of Toki.

"Took your time hopping over here," an utterly familiar voice said to her.

She spun around to see Sasuke kneeling down in front of her. She hopped over closer to him and looked up at him with telling eyes.

"Yamanaka Ino, correct?"

The best she could do was nod.

"Listen closely to what I am about to tell you," Sasuke said sternly. "You have to memorize this, so if you wish for me to repeat something, tap your foot twice. After this immediately return to your body and tell this information to Nara Shikamaru and Hokage-sama as quickly as possible. What you do after that will be up to Shikamaru, and I can only hope this will turn out for the best…"

Definitions

(1) – Seiza Position – Japanese sitting position where you kneel with your hands on your lap and the heels of your feet are tucked under your butt

(2) – Cloak – It comes to my attention that what I picture in my mind as a cloak is not really a cloak. A cloak is an article of clothing intended for use outdoors that is more of an overgrown coat than anything. What I think a cloak is is a bit different. I think a cloak is something like an overgrown poncho kind of thing. Like a really long, sleeveless coat that has one fastener at the top at the collar. You know? Well, I don't really know what to call it, but I'm still going to call is a cloak. Just a little F.Y.I. to make sure you're not picturing the wrong thing in your mind.

(3) – Ino scouting inside an animal – This was seen in the manga when Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru and Kakashi were going to go ambush those two Akatsuki dudes whose names escape me for the time being… She was in a hawk in the manga, but a hare works just as well.

And there you have it. Chapter 25 is up. At the absolute most there will be 30 chapters. I'm going to try to end it in at least 3 more chapters though, hopefully less though. This isn't the point I actually wanted to end the chapter, but I thought better something than nothing. Drat, my social's teacher is starting to rub off on me... Darn you school!!!!!