Naruto picked up Aiko who appeared to just be sleeping soundly

"Naruto we should… probably get him to Lady Tsunade." Hinata said

"I don't think we need to worry. He's just been through a lot today but something tells me… He's gonna be just fine." Naruto responded

Meanwhile at the circle of the other Shinobi everyone was gathered around Shino who was still shaking.

"This is bad I've never seen Shino act like this!" Kiba said as Akamaru whimpered

"What's wrong Shino!? What did Yomi say to you?" Shikamaru asked

Shino just knelt there with his hands on his knees looking at the ground and sweating profusely.

"I think he's in a state of shock. We need to get him to a hospital and cool him down before we can expect anything from him." Sakura said

"Well whatever it is I hope it can shed some light on what Yomi is!" The Tsuchikage said closing his eyes as he hovered, "He took a direct hit from my Atomic Dismantling Jutsu and walked away without a scratch."

"Yes, and to scatter my sand as though he controlled it such power is not from this world!" Gaara said collectedly

"Hurry up and let's get back to the Leaf and make our report!" Sasuke said and walked to the edge of the ruined plateau.

Sasuke stopped and looked at a charred body that was in one of the smoldering houses. Something about it seemed strange and he walked over to it and looked. He saw a golden ring on it with a strange symbol and he took it off the hand. Suddenly the corpse jumped up and grabbed onto Sasuke's arm. He quickly drew out his chidori blade and cut the corpse to ribbons before jumping back and looking at the sliced body of the charred corpse.

"Was that… some sort of trap set by Yomi?" Naruto said still holding on to Aiko

"I am not sure but I believe it can't be a trap set by anyone!" Lee said closing his eyes and putting his hand to his chin

"What do you mean Lee?" Tenten asked

"Good job Lee! So you noticed it too!" Guy said moving up next to Lee, "Why would anyone set a trap with something that didn't have any value and could possibly go unnoticed?" Guy said mimicking Lee's pose.

"He wouldn't!" Neji said as his eyes grew piercing and venous, "Byakugan!" he looked across the scattered bodies and at the ring in Sasuke's hand and his mouth dropped open.

"It's full of energy!" He said finally, "All of them! All of the rings seem to be full of some sort of energy and they are on every single corpse! The only one that seems to be lacking is the one that Sasuke has in his hands."

"What does this mean?" Shikamaru said joining Lee and Guy in their pensive poses.

Sakura looked at the three, "WILL YOU THREE STOP FOOLING AROUND AND GET GOING!" she yelled as she picked up Katashi's body and they all jumped down from the plateau and through the trees.

"We should bring two bodies for study by the Anbu Black Ops, the one that Sasuke just defeated and one that still has the ring." Shikamaru said turning to Lee, "Either you or guy should carry the other just in case it wakes up during the trip back to the village."

"It is a splendid idea I shall be the one to carry him!" Lee said hoisting a corpse onto his shoulder and jumping down with the other two to join the caravan back to the village

When they reached the village Aiko was set up in a small hospital room with minor burns from the golden thread. Katashi was taken to the morgue and the two corpses were dropped off at the Anbu for investigation.

Shino was admitted to the shock ward and treated accordingly. While everyone waited Naruto and Shikamaru went to Lady Tsunade to file their report.

"So you're saying Yomi withstood the barrage of attacks without even a scratch?" Tsunade said resting her clasped hands on her upper lip.

"I've never seen anything like it. It was like he was only toying with us right from the beginning, playing a game!" Naruto said

"I agree with Naruto. He had ample opportunity to kill every single one of us but he went through the trouble of letting himself be captured and even then I think he could have gotten out if he truly wanted to." Shikamaru said

Tsunade hit the table hard, "What are we supposed to do against an enemy like that! Nothing even touches him!"

"Well I'm not sure but he must have some deeper plan. If he wanted to he could have easily killed us and even then why not just kill Naruto? Why go after Aiko? Yomi seems to make a big deal out of the Rinnegan being Naruto's fault but during the battle he only went after Aiko. It doesn't make any sense." Shikamaru said

Kiba and Akamaru appeared in the window, "Shino's awake!" He yelled

"Good we might finally get something useful!" Shikamaru said as the two jumped out the window and down to the hospital.

Shino was sitting up in his bed and looking at the sheets as the others walked in, "Hey Shino, what's up you looked like you'd seen a ghost when Yomi whispered in your ear!" Kiba said as Tenten nudged him in the stomach

"Shino we need to know what Yomi said to you about the seal!" Neji said

"It was his seal." Shino said quietly

"What!?"

"It was HIS seal!" Shino said louder and everyone donned a look of shock.

"That's not possible!" Kakashi said having joined the group just as the revelation was given, "According to Katashi it was something that sealed Yomi to his domain like a normal summoning Jutsu!"

"Yomi… is a master of deception." Came a voice behind the group and as they turned around they saw a young man with straight white hair, piercing white eyes, a white shirt and green pants that were cargo style.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked pushing through the group to the kid, he was about as tall as Naruto and seemed to be the same age.

"What do you mean? It's me… Aiko!" The kid responded

"That's impossible!" Neji shouted from the side, "Aiko appears alot younger than you are!"

"What do you mean?" Aiko said and turned to a mirror and saw himself and then looked at himself and at his hands, "How did I…?"

"You've got a couple of screws loose if you think we're gonna believe that you're Aiko!" Naruto said pointing an accusatory finger at the stranger

"Yeah, we don't take kindly to strangers causing trouble." Kiba said baring his claws

"Naruto, don't you remember you sat next to me and told me that when you felt alone you would go to that mart and you went there when Jiraya died!" Aiko said and Naruto stopped

"You might have been spying on them! I don't believe you for a moment!" Kiba said continuing

"Wait!" Naruto shouted and the crowd backed off a little.

Naruto walked up to Aiko and lifted his arm up to the side of Aiko's. To everyone's surprise both arms lit up with the Alchemical seals.

"It is you! How'd you get so… big!" Naruto asked

"It's possible that the energy from the two Nations seals caused his body to grow to the age between the two!" Shikamaru said pensively

"It's possible," Kakashi chimed in, "After all Katashi did say the Life force was transferred into the new host, maybe this is what he meant."

"We'll have to worry about that later. Right now we need to know what you were going to say." Sasuke said from the side.

"I was saying that Yomi is the master of deception, he probably told Riku that the seal kept him bound so that Riku would keep the seal with him." Aiko said

"That would allow him to appear wherever and whenever he wanted!" Sasuke finished, "Riku was played for a fool!"

"Unfortunately so were we!" Shino said

"Huh!?" Naruto turned around

"Shino's beetles now have a version of the seal inscribed on their bodies, literally millions of access points for Yomi!" Shikamaru finished

"Could that have been Yomi's plan from the beginning?" Lee asked

"I don't know…" Shikamaru said just as an Anbu agent appeared in the doorway, "Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga and Aiko of the Wind you are being summoned to the examination room at the foundation.

The four left with the officer as the rest just stood there and watched. They arrived at the foundation headquarters and descended to its basement where all the highest secrecy experiments were performed. Naruto didn't like the feeling of being there as it reminded him of Yota and losing his friend.

They entered the examination room and to their surprise Orochimaru was there with Lady Tsunade.

"What's he doing here!?" Naruto yelled pointing wildly at Orochimaru

"Oh come now Naruto I thought we'd had an understanding, don't tell me it was all just an act." Orochimaru said

"Believe it or not Orochimaru is the only person I can think of who is qualified to find out what's going on with these bodies. Our scientists haven't found anything useful!" Tsunade said

"Hmph!" Naruto said folding his arms and turning to the side

They all walked up to the corpses and looked at them as they lay on the tables.

"Well first thing I can tell you is they aren't Shinobi, at least not very good ones." Orochimaru stated

"What do you mean?" Shikamaru asked

"Their Chakra networks aren't evolved adequately it seems as though these bodies relied on a separate source of energy." Orochimaru explained

"They're elementalists!" Aiko said and everyone turned to him

"What do you mean!?" Tsunade asked

"The rings on their hands were given only to elementalists born into the four nations. These ones were from the Fire judging by their rings." Aiko said

"But what were they doing at the Village and why did one attack Sasuke!?" Shikamaru asked

"The rings contain a small amount of the elementalists life force and were given as a trump card for the war. At first the rings were used to help identify people who were killed as they were forged by a special method that prevented them from ever being destroyed. Once they became like trophies to whomever killed someone they had a different purpose infused in them. Now whenever someone removes the ring from the dead elementalist's body the power in the ring allows them to come back about one-tenth as powerful but as a Zombie-like reincarnation who's only job is to kill the person holding the ring and putting it back on their finger. The rings became a defining item in the nations and everyone from baby to elder had an Identity ring on!" Aiko explained

"So how did they get to Otakato village,… and where are the villagers?" Shikamaru asked

"I don't know but I do know that we need to deal with Yomi before he defiles more of our dead!" Aiko said clenching his fists

"Well it seems like you didn't need me after all!" Orochimaru shrugged

"We need to find Yomi and defeat him!" Aiko said

"We just tried that and he made a fool out of all of us!" Shikamaru interjected

"I know but that's because you went at it as Shinobi. Yomi is a job for the Alchemists!"

Thanks for reading and once again sorry it took so long to post it I had a lot of work to do all day for the last few days and have been extremely tired. So I decided that it's important to connect with the readers for an Author to become popular so I am going to try to tell you something small about myself each time I finish a chapter. So for today I will say that I work in sales. That's it hopefully anyone in sales can relate to me a little better now. Ultima S. next, All for One and One for Aiko!