Author's Note: hey!!!!! What's going on everyone? Well I am going to stop talking and let you read this next one, enjoy!

Chapter 38: Attempted Theft?

"Sakura-chan……..Sakura-chan…….."

My eyes slightly opened. The light was much too bright. I could hear someone calling me, but I just ignored it and fell back asleep.

"Sakura-chan……..Sakura-chan………..SAKURA-CHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh I heard the voice very well and Naruto was shaking me and I was getting pissed.

He wouldn't stop so I immediately removed my covers and hit him as hard as I possible could.

"WHAT THE HELL NARUTO!?"

My strength caused him to crash into the other side of the cave wall. The cracks I must say were pretty deep.

"What do you mean what the hell? I was trying to wake you up!"

I checked my watch and glared at him, "Its 7:30 in the morning baka!"

Ayumu-san came in, "7:30 meaning we need to get going Sakura-san. I went into the woods after my early morning meditation and retrieved wild fruit. It's not poisonous at all, humans may eat these".

Naruto immediately dug into the basket of fruit, "Ahhh!!! Thanks a ton old man!"

We all helped ourselves when I turned to Ayumu-san, "Where is Ryo?"

He took a bite of his berry, "Oh I found Ryo-san training a little bit earlier today, I think he may be waiting outside for us".

"Sakura-chan, did you find him yesterday?"

I finished eating and responded, "Yeah I did……..but as usual, Ryo was acting like a jerk. He called me a premodonna living in my own fantasy world that is too ignorant to understand what so many people have gone through. I am not that kind of person!"

Ayumu-san put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down, "Did anything good come out of this situation?"

Naruto just stared at him, "What's wrong with you old man! How could anything good come out of this whole thing if Ryo was being a-"

I cut him off and answered Ayumu-san's question, "Yes……something did…..I found out a little bit about his past. His parents were murdered………"

Everyone stayed quiet for a while until Naruto checked the time, "We better get going".

We packed our things and headed out for the day. Ryo sat outside on a log being pensive as usual.

Ayumu-san could say that I didn't want to talk to Ryo at the moment, "Ryo-san, it's time for us to leave".

Ryo didn't say anything. He got up and walked ahead of us to the lightening country.

This trip was quiet, and the events from last night failed to leave my mind.

"Why do I keep thinking about what he said to me? He's an ass he doesn't know that he's talking about……I can't believe I let him walk all over me like that……."

I decided to forget about everything that happened the day before, "Ayumu-san how long will it take us to get to the lightening country?"

"Let me think…….to the lightening country we have 15 minutes left. To get to the village hidden in the clouds, it will take about30-35 minutes".

I smiled, "Thank you".

He nodded.

15 minutes passed by quickly and we entered the lightening country. We climbed up the mountain to get to the village hidden up in the clouds.

"Thank you for bringing me back home you three. Overall it was a safe journey, and I am thankful to have ninja like you who you risk your lives for someone like me".

"We were glad to escort you Ayumu-san" I said to him.

We still had a week left until the meeting between the kages and feudal lords, "Naruto what do you want to do since we have to stay here for a week?"

"Is there a ramen stand anywhere here?"

"I have no idea".

We ended up staying at an inn in the village. It gave you that home-comfort feeling. I went by myself into the town square and got some lunch, it turns out they did have ramen.

I ate by myself observing everyone walking around and going about their day. The buildings were designed into a Tudor-style. They were white with brown roofs and carvings, which I really liked. It almost gave me a medieval feel to it. Well Ayumu-san did say that this town hadn't changed a bit from a hundred years ago.

I finished, paid the bill, and decided to look for Ayumu.

Although the village was high up in the mountains, it was still very warm. I smiled and greeted everyone that walked my way.

"These people are so friendly it wouldn't be so bad to live here".

I looked in the different shops and asked around in the markets, but I didn't see him.

"Where could he have gone to?"

Then I thought if he's a priest he must be at………..

"The Shrine!"

The only problem was, I had no idea where it's located. There was a tour guide taking a group of tourists around. I walked over and asked him.

"Excuse me sir I'm sorry to interrupt, but do you know possible where the lightening shrine may be?"

He wasn't bothered at all by my interruption, "Well young lady you came to the right guy! The shrine is all the way up that hill. It's heavily guarded so I hope you have an actual purpose being there. No one is really allowed in".

"Thank you so much!"

I made my way up the hill and found a whole bunch of guards in front of the door. One of them must have seen me when he turned his head and asked, "State your purpose young lady".

"Of course he noticed me, I have pink hair!"

I proceeded to answer his question, "Oh…well…I am here to see a friend of mine, Ayumu-san the priest of this shrine".

He gave me a suspicious look, "Let me check with Ayumu-san".

I nodded as he slightly opened the door and called for the said man, "Ayumu-san! A friend of yours is here to see you".

"A friend?" I heard him ask from inside.

The guard nodded, "Yes a friend. You may come out and see for yourself".

The door fully opened revealing the same old man wearing a white robe with his golden, lightening-imprinted medallion.

"Ahhh….Sakura-san please come in! Guards there is nothing to worry about. I assure you Sakura-san has no wrong intentions, please let her through".

"As you wish" the guard said while taking a step aside to let me through.

"Thank you sir" I said while walking in the room.

It was nothing like I expected it to be. This shrine was huge! The walls and the marble floor were a beautiful ivory color with golden designs and carvings upon the darker red pillars. It looked very comfy with the matching red and gold sofas and meditation rugs. In the very center of the room was a brown table with a rectangular glass container on top encasing something inside.

I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of the object, "Ayumu-san…..exactly what is inside the glass case?"

He looked to where I was looking, "Oh my dear that is the sacred jewel of the heavens".

"Not to sound rude or anything Ayumu-san, but, what exactly is so…..sacred about that jewel?"

The two of us walked over to the said object and observed it, "The Gods were said to have created this stone. It has no power by it self, but when collected with the other jewels from the other villages they are said to have unstoppable power".

I was still mesmerized by the jewel, "What kind of power?"

"Well…..no one I know has ever witnessed something like this before. Legend says that when all pieces are together they summon each of the guardian foxes".

I turned to face him, "Guardian foxes?"

He nodded, "Yes, the guardian foxes. Did you not hear about the nine-tailed fox attacking Konoha 21 years ago?"

"No…..I didn't…….where do those foxes come from?"

He continued to answer my questions, "About 1,000 years ago. The spirits of the nine foxes were mysteriously placed inside nine different bodies. After its human container dies, the spirits are transferred into someone new. Those creatures give their holders infinite power. There have been times when the host was not able to control the power of the fox, causing destruction and killing so many innocent people. The human is nothing without their fox spirit, they will die once the spirit leaves the body if the human is still alive".

I stared at him wide-eyed listening to this legend, "Ayumu-san…….exactly what happened……..21 years ago to my village?"

We both sat down on one of the sofas, "Well……somehow when the nine-tailed fox's previous host died, it was not transferred to someone else but brought back to it's original form. It was a giant….capable of bringing forth terror and disastrous outcomes, and it did just that. This was the period of time when Konoha had the most casualties throughout it's entire history. The fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze was able to seal the Kyuubi away inside a baby boy".

I was completely awe-struck, "Who was that boy? Where is he now?"

"No one knows his identity. The boy was immediately taken out of the village by his assigned caretaker afraid that the boy would be shunned in this society. He was never seen since….."

"Oh my………."

I was completely speechless after hearing this entire story until Ayumu-san decided to change the subject.

"Sakura-san, why don't we take a walk outside in the village?"

"Of course" I agreed with him.

We left the shrine and walked down to the village.

"Ayumu-san, are there any jewelry shops anywhere? My mother needed some more pieces".

He smiled, "Ahh yes….the lightening country is world renown for its precious jewels, please follow me".

We walked to the end of the village and went inside. It was a small-quaint looking shop. I was immediately greeted by the shopkeeper.

"Hello there! Welcome to cloud jewelers, how may I help you today?"

I smiled, "Hello! I am actually looking for some nice pieces for my mother who lives back home in Konoha, and I'm just here temporarily so I decided to take a look in here".

She grinned, "Well you have come to the right place! We have jewels of all kinds. Ask for anything and you will for sure find it".

I looked down at the jewels inside the glass cases, "Hmmm……she really wanted some type of amber….."

"Oh, amber is one of the lightening country's specialties. Let me get all of the pieces we have. Meanwhile, just keep looking around".

"Ok" I said to her as she went into the back room.

I turned to Ayumu, "Ayumu-san, you don't have to stick around with me. Looking at jewelry must be boring you……"

He smiled, "Nonsense Sakura-san! I am always happy to accompany you. I will even help choose a piece for your mother, if that's ok with you?"

"Of course you can. Come, help me look".

He approached me and started gazing at all of the eye-catching jewelry.

The shopkeeper came back, "Ok Miss! Here are all of the amber pieces we've got. Please take a look".

I wasn't really interested in the pieces she got from the back, I wanted something unique to give to mother.

I was a bit afraid to tell her what I thought of them, "ummm….I'm sorry but these jewels look like something you could find anywhere. I really want something unique……something you can't find anywhere else".

She brushed it off like it was nothing, "No it's fine! You're the customer so I expect you to say something like that. You haven't looked at everything in this shop, so just keep on looking at tell me what you think".

"Sure" I said as I looked around.

They were all nice but there was nothing that I'm sure mother would like. She is very picky when it comes to jewelry.

"Sakura-san, how about this".

I walked over to Ayumu-san and my eyes stayed glued to the beautiful piece, "Ayumu-san, its perfect!"

"I thought so" he said as he gave it to the shopkeeper.

"Oh wow…..yes this is actually the newest piece we have. It was delivered to us pretty recently. Would you like to buy it miss?"

I nodded, "Yes please".

"Okie doke!" She said while working with the cash register. It was actually good price too.

"Today must be my lucky day".

I paid the shopkeeper and Ayumu-san and I walked outside. I took the amber jewel out and admired it.

There was a pair of earrings with a matching necklace. The color was so vibrant and the shine was radiating off of the jewel. It was in the shape of a rain drop with a silver lining bordering the edge of the jewelry. In the very middle, a small silver lightening bolt was imprinted.

"You love it don't you?"

I put the jewelry back in my bag, "Yes Ayumu-san, thank you so much for picking it out. I think she will love it".

"Happy to hear it".

Things weren't so happy once we heard loud explosives and people screaming and running all over town.

"What's going on!?"

I looked up and found a couple of rice country ninja invading the cloud village.

"Where is the jewel of heavens!? Give it to me!" demanded one of the ninja.

Ayumu-san ran over and stood up to him.

"Is that old man crazy!? He's going to get himself killed!"

"No….you will not lay your filthy hands on the jewel of the heavens. It belongs to my village, and you will stay away from here!"

The enemy smirked, "Oh….and what will you do if I don't stay away old man?"

He grabbed the hood of the cloak and put a kunai to Ayumu-san's neck, "Who are you to tell me huh? What are you some priest? You are a weakling!"

I couldn't bear to watch this seen any longer. I ran and prepared to give him a blow.

He seemed to notice I was there, "Watch it princess…..any step closer and this guy will pay for it….."

"Sakura-san, please just do it……"

"No Ayumu-san…..I don't want you to loose you life….."

I had to think of something fast before something worse happens, "Where is Naruto!?"

It's like he heard my mental plea.

No one was able to detect his shadow clones.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" He yelled as he took hold of the enemy ninja's neck. Then another Naruto appeared and slickly pushed Ayumu-san away from the scene.

He was hurt, the kunai pierced into the side of his neck.

"Ayumu-san! Let me heal you".

I laid him down on the ground and began the healing process. I focused my chakra to repair the damage to a couple of his nerves in that part of his neck.

A couple of paramedics appeared at the scene and took Ayumu-san to the hospital.

I turned back to help Naruto.

This guy was elitley trained and too quick for my monstrous punches.

"What the hell!?"

"Where's that damn jewel!?"

I saw a couple of guards running towards our direction.

"STOP! STOP ATTACKING OUR VILLAGE! THERE IS NO JEWEL!"

The ninja stopped attacking and looked at him, "What do you mean there's no jewel? This village holds it".

He was panting, "I know…..I am one of the guards to the shrine. I checked to make sure it was still there…..but the stone was missing".

Gasps and murmurs were heard amongst the townsfolk.

The raikage stepped in, "That is impossible. The shrine is heavily guarded. Who could have gotten through?"

The rice country ninja spoke up again, "Well……I was in the mood for taking a life anyway. Why don't you be the first raikage-sama!?"

He charged at the raikage, able to make it past the guards who were in front.

Suddenly blue lightening was seen in the sky. It grew larger and more powerful and struck him.

"Stay the hell away from the jewel………" The person seethed.

I saw Ryo approaching the man and stepping on him crushing his bones.

"P-Please…..s-stop……." The ninja pleaded.

Ryo's eyes were bloodthirsty and power hungry. I've never seen him like this, Naruto and I were in complete shock.

I couldn't let Ryo kill this man.

"Ryo stop!"

He didn't even notice that I was there. I did the unthinkable………

I slapped his face.

"S-Sakura-chan?" I heard Naruto question from within the crowd.

Ryo turned to me and glared, "What the hell Sakura!? Why didn't you-"

I cut him off, "You are a blood thirsty fiend Hayashi Ryo! I don't know or care where you came from, but Konoha ninja don't do things like this. These kinds of actions are looked down upon in our village, in any village for that matter".

He was really pissed off at me, but I didn't care.

He deserved it.

I left everyone and went to check up on Ayumu-san.

I entered his room and found the poor man lying on a white bed wearing the hospital robe.

"S-Sakura-s-san……"

I immediately rushed to his side, "Ayumu-san! You'll be fine!"

He smiled at me, "Thank you for saving me. If you didn't…….I wouldn't be here. I owe you my life……."

I nodded, "All that matters to me is that you're ok. Did you hear about the jewel? It was stolen".

His smile faded, "I know….."

I continued, "I have a question……..is there such a thing as blue lightening?"

"That is only if you posses the stone of the heavens. I am the only one who knows what kind of power it holds, it is a secret which I entrust you with".

I lost everything after he said that is the power of the stone of heavens.

"C-Could Ryo have stolen the stone?"

Author's Note: Tell me the truth, how did you like it? I'll update soon!

Thanks,

Sweetness.