A/N: I normally read all the reviews of past chapter the same moment that I'm uploading the new one, except those who made me want to respond with a PM as soon as possible. So if you received any PM from me…your comment got me.

I'm still looking for a job; related to broadcasting and/or advertising. If you know someone who can be any contact, feel free to tell me. I'm willing to move to any part of the states or travel through any part of Puerto Rico. Thanks in advance.

Hikair(LipSmacker) Thanks for your reviews through DA and I just imagine that happening in the anime, so I agree that it must be too damn funny.

Muddledthoughts I know that I never mentioned what was written on that letter, you'll have to wait then (Just in case I have it written already).

NanamiYatsumaki Yeah, having bad internet sucks, but I hope to keep updating and making the best that I can do.

Hinata Lovers you can expect anything from this story, but still that's why I give that name. Good observation…

kenshinlover2002thanks for your support as always and it seems that many reader's have my same taste in literature…I like that.

lil-saturn-goddess thanks for the review and most of my choice of words and conversations comes out like I'm seeing it at the moment of how they'll react, or something like that.

Elladora my intention is not turning you into a Sakura-hater…is just that I want her very far away from Sasuke…that's all.

queen46 when I started to wrote this story I said that I don't wanted to write so many fight scenes, but now I see them too damn necessary…oh well…as long as they keep them been understood by the readers it will be great.


Disclaimer: I don't own it, bad spelling, evil grammar and some typos…I know.

The thin line between love and hate

Chapter 50

Ten days…

Ten days since Sasuke and Hinata started this kind of 'affair'. It was either at her place or Sasuke's, whenever it was the 'mood' or the situation of the moment that they were and the need was there. But lately, something had been wondering the Uchiha.

He is almost sure that she had developed some feelings towards him, but every time that somehow they get closer than the usual physical one, she cuts or changes the subject, but he can't blame her.

She came out from a confusing and merely angst relationship with Itachi, the one he killed was his blood related, and it was curious that either of them ever mentioned that, even talked about the past, like trying to deny that part of their lives.

And Sasuke returned to the visit sessions with Ayaka, he found her more reliable of telling her his feelings about the matter than talk about them to Kakashi or Naruto; none of them can understand of the way that this was working. Ayaka was being a great help, and thank Kami that she understood that he didn't wanted to tell her with who he was having the 'situation'. Ayaka was helping giving him the questions that he needed to ask himself.

That was really useful for a person like him.

And this morning, when he woke up and saw that Hinata was already gone, he repeated in his mind the same question that Ayaka made the other day:

Ayaka: "Just ask yourself Sasuke this one: 'What are we?' once you can answer that, you can decide the next step."

Now he understood the question, the problem is that how an arrogant and prideful person like him can approach another person as prideful and arrogant like him with such question.

Not like he is going to propose her, right?


Yuki and Saito had noticed the changes of Hinata as well, but Hiro had declined to say his opinion. And now they are waiting for their captain half an hour earlier than usual to talk to her.

Hinata has been acting weirder than usual; she was over training and even ordered double ration of black coffee. She looked like she was mad or stressed for something, and Yuki thinks is related to Tatsuha training with Sasuke. Maybe she thinks that he can advance further and that Yuki wasn't being as rude as he used to. But the blonde ANBU thinks that Sasuke is pretty far away from her, and that there's no way that she can be surpassed by him.

Saito thinks is for the fact that maybe she hadn't gotten a chance to get her vengeance through the Uchiha for killing Itachi, and with team seven and Tsunade at his side, she can't do anything without being labeled as traitor. Traitor for killing another traitor, how funny…

Hiro hadn't say anything out loud, but he thinks that she feels uneasy since the encounter with the Ramjal. The demon has offered to be together with Itachi, but in hell. And the problem is that because the Third Hokage used the forbidden jutsu and his soul was in hell as well, she had nothing to loose.

Only her life…

Is an offer that she can't resist, but there most be something that is keeping her in Konoha and not letting her leave and search for the demon; but what?

Their thoughts were interrupted when they saw their captain coming. She was all sweated and with dirt everywhere. It was one thing that came into her teammates' mind when they saw her: training.

But she is not used to do it alone unless she needs to be alone, and she'd been doing that for the past two weeks.

Weird, really weird…

Hinata had needed to be alone and think about what she had been doing for the past days. She was sleeping with her enemy, the one who finished Itachi. She was supposed to be the avenger this time, but now she was sleeping to the arrogant prick called Uchiha Sasuke. And since she returned from the mansion, she hadn't visited Itachi's grave either.

It was like she started to forget about him, but she can't.

Itachi was the one that was there for all these years and became the best of her life, with all and the situations between them. Itachi was Itachi and Sasuke is Sasuke. That as clear, and in conclusion, what she was doing with Sasuke was wrong and she needs to finish it as soon as possible.

But how you can finish something that you started to enjoy and call it by his name?


Sasuke got out from Ayaka's office and was reunited with the reaming of team seven. Sakura was still into observation at the hospital since that incident days ago, but she is recovering, this time slower than usual. She got the same shock back at the tournament; it seemed that Hinata repeated the same treatment. Hess was in a similar case, but he thinks that is in a purgatory and not alive. He will take more time to recover, to no say ever.

Walking through the streets of the village, a group of girls surrounds the team. Naruto slaps his forehead, no Sasuke's fans…no today…

"Hi, we re on a special assignment, and we need to interview all of you." Says one of the girls with a pen and notebook in her hand. The three men look at each other then at the girls…they are reporters?

"If there's no inconvenient of course." Interrupts another girl.

Then Kakashi and Naruto agreed, and Sasuke had no other choice since he was pushed to do it. They did it once back at he chounin exam, is the same thing, right?


Team zero and Hinata were working with the paperwork of the office and into the task at hands, when a ninja appears at the door. "Hinata-sama, there's a visitor on the village, asking for you."

"A visitor?" asks the captain, normally visitors pass into the village without problem, and then ask for directions.

"We tried to get more information from him, but the only we say about him is that he is tall, dark, too quiet and--"

"Where is he?" asks suddenly the captain, getting the impression from her teammates.

"He is waiting outside of the tower, Hinata-sama." Ends the ninja, then the captain smirks and looks back at her teammates. "I think that today is Yuki's turn to pay lunch, right?" with that the blonde ANBU nods. "Then I'll ask you to eat our lunch earlier, if that can be possible…"


The 'simple and friendly' interview last for 90 minutes and the damn girls were asking from how was Sasuke's 'journey' for three years and the places he went to Naruto's ramen philosophy. It only lasted 90 minutes because Sasuke left when he saw that his was going non-stop. Naruto and Kakashi had to follow him, but glad by the way that they got attention.

Kakashi is also used to it; after all he was the number one on his class back at the academy, while Naruto finally felt the attention from the opposite sex, which is good when you have someone like Sai talking about your 'size' who by the way is male.

It was lunch time, and Naruto was about to suggest ramen when Sasuke looked at a local restaurant. Thinking that maybe he can bring some food for later to Hinata's, he decides to get in; they didn't trained today so they were still clean and looking good.

After getting in, the waitress greets them and takes them to a table. After taking their orders she winks at Kakashi and leaves. Meanwhile Sasuke was still looking at the drink menu, waiting for their entrees.

Naruto was quite bored because the place was quiet, then he sees a music machine on one of the corners, then sees this tall, dark man walking towards it. Putting some coins into it, he selects the song to play, and Naruto hopes that he had chose a good one, he doesn't want to make worst his stay in such silent place. Then it turns out that the song started with rock cords, and the blonde nin found himself comfy with it.

Watching the man returning to his seat, he notices something important. He took a seat on the table where Hinata and team zero were too. With his elbow Naruto hits Kakashi's side who sat beside him to look at his direction, the copy ninja does the same and opens his only eye wide. Sasuke notices the discomfort of their actions and turns to look behind him.

And there they were; Saito, Yuki, Hiro, Hinata…and who is that man? The Uchiha notices that the man mentioned was sit on front of the captain and that when the waitress returned with a bottle of sake, Hinata takes it and pours on the mystery man's cup.

She never did that to him, ever.

He tried to see a reaction from the faces from the next of team zero, but they were talking almost all the time. Then Hinata moves her mouth to say something to the man, who had his back to Sasuke, and it seemed to tell something back at her because she reacted by rising an eyebrow and the rest of team zero laughing.

Turning his gaze back to Kakashi, he asked if he was from here, the copy ninja responded that he had never seen him before, and a person like him is fast to notice around. Then the waitress appeared with their orders, and when the woman in question winked at Sasuke, he gulped his cup of sake and asked for another while they were eating their pork buns and rice balls. It was too early to drink, that was true, but he needs it right now.

"You're such an inspiration for the ways

That I'll never ever choose to be

Oh so many ways for me to show you

How the savior has abandoned you

Fuck your God

Your Lord and your Christ

He did this

Took all you had and

Left you this way

Still you pray, you never stray

Never taste of the fruit

You never thought to question why"

Naruto was now in disgrace, the man who chose the song must be in deep depression…

Then, Hinata suddenly stood up and looked down at the man in front of her. Then she sat down and spoke back to him, Sasuke and the others tried to hear (even if they don't admit it) but the music was too loud to listen. Then Hinata asked for the bill, and Yuki tried to pick it up, but she didn't let him and paid, saying something like 'you pay next time'.

While leaving the place, the man was walking behind Hinata, but Sasuke got the chance to hear a piece of the conversation:

Hinata: "Let's go, Heat-san. I'll show you where the Hokage is."

And the man nods in agreement, leaving the place at once along with team zero.

There was one thing that Sasuke can think of that man…

He didn't like him, period.


Hinata: "It's not like you killed someone…It's not like you drove a hateful spear into his side…Praise the one who left you…Broken down and paralyzed…He did it all for you…He did it all for you…"

"Stop that," says Yuki while walking along with team zero and the mystery man. "I don't like that song, is kind of deep, but still…"

"Fine, fine" responds the captain with a sight, "The leader of this village is in that place, just go there and say that you need to speak to the Hokage, her name is Tusnade." Then the man looks back at Hinata, only showing his right eye from the mass of black hair.

"Something that I should know?"

"Just one thing," with that Hinata looks up at him with a stern glare. "Don't mention how I know you, that's all."


The sun is setting and now Sasuke was resting from his training with Tatsuha, in other words to get back his breath. The training has been more difficult than he ever though, he even saw himself death when the monk sent him towards the cliff…for the fifth time today. But he liked it, this was the kind of training that he was hoping to get, this was awesome compared to Orochimaru's.

Then after picking up his gatherings, he sees Naruto and Kakashi walking towards them. Well, Naruto was actually running and Kakashi walking.

What now…

"Hey Teme guess what!" screams excitedly he blonde nin, then the monk interrupts. "You got laid?" then Kakashi had to hold down Naruto to prevent him to hit Tatsuha.

He is the heir of the Kinomoto clan after all.

"Can you stop complaining and tell me what is it?" says the Uchiha, rather annoyed and tired, but preferred to show only the first one.

"We have a mission, and you're included!"

"So?"

"So?!" responds with wide eyes Naruto, "don't you get it?! They give you trust! They decided to give you a mission as a Konoha ninja!" Then Sasuke just nodded, it was indeed surprising. But then again, he was the last of a powerful and deadly bloodline; they can't loose a chance to not have it on Konoha. Even having Hinata with them, having also Uchiha Sasuke on their 'menu' can state the village as the most powerful of the five countries, even matching with Suna and their Kazekage

He'll give the good news to Hinata tonight…

"Why are you spacing out?! We need to go to Tsunade to get the information of the mission, come on!" says out loud the blonde nin, while dragging Sasuke away from the monk. Then he saw that Kakashi and Tatsuha started to talk…and he didn't like it a bit.

Wonder why…

"Did he have gone stronger as you said, Tatsuha-san?" asks Kakashi, still looking at his two students getting further. The monk was seeing at the same direction, but with a smirk that was a trademark of his clan, a smirk that can even melt a lady or make cum any man; or tremble in fear any enemy: the Kinomoto smirk.

"He has surpassed any of my predictions Hatake-san. But he is not even compared to Hinata yet. Now he needs to be one with his own self, and he can even match Hinata in the future."

"Don't tell him that." States Kakashi, "he's been happy with a special someone for the past weeks and distracted him from his rivalry with Hinata. I've seen Hinata lately and she seems to be training non-stop, this can't be good."

"I know," responds the monk, "although he doesn't admit it, I think that he is in love."

With that the copy ninja walks to catch up with his students, "In the world of Uchiha Sasuke that word doesn't exist, Tatsuha-san."


The trio made it to the Hokage's office, but when Naruto was about to knock, someone comes out. It was that man again, but Sasuke noticed that earlier he was carrying a bag and that now he didn't have it with him. And the fact that he looked directly at Sasuke as soon as he saw him, made the situation awkward.

"Oh, sorry for Naruto's action." Says Kakashi to cut the tension between the two men, "Can you excuse us Mr.--?"

"Heat…Brandon Heat." Responds the man and stands under the light. He was a couple inches taller than Sasuke and he looked well toned, like he did a lot of exercise. His silk dark hair was almost on his shoulders and had a patch on his left eye, and glasses for the other eye. He was a weird looking man compared to all those he had seen before.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Heat, hope to see you around soon. And welcome to the village."

Brandon nods and leaves the place quietly, too quiet for their taste. "I can swear that he is dead or something, he doesn't make any sound." Mutters Naruto while gets in with the others.

Getting in, Tsunade looked pleased to see them, especially Sasuke. "I'm glad to see you right now guys. There's a change of plans." With that Naruto was about to protest, but Tsunade's eyes told him to not dare to complain.

"I had in my plans to send Hinata into a special mission, but something came up and I decided to send you instead. After all, I believe that Sasuke would be very useful on this one than Hinata in the end." With that the Uchiha got the attention, this must be interesting.

"Here's the scroll with all the details, and since Sakura is still in the hospital; I decided to send Sai with you. It was a good idea from Hinata to make him stay and send Lee's team to a mission. You're dismissed." With that they leave and search for Sai to organize the details.


The mission was close to what Sasuke expected to happen at any moment: it was already know about Orochimaru and his experimental laboratories. And there are missing ninjas inside of them used as experiments or other things. Since Sasuke was fully aware of those places, their mission is to get to those places, see what they can do for those who are from Konoha and gather all they can do from that place destroying it in the end. At the beginning it was assigned to Hinata due to her fast tracking and successful solo missions, but since she was changed into another mission; Sasuke was the second best choice.

But here is the interesting thing: if the mission is successful both Naruto and Sasuke will be promoted as jounin without the exam. That was the best part for the blonde nin. The deal is to leave tomorrow in the morning, so Sasuke decided to go at Hinata's place and tell her the news.

And maybe have some time together before he leaves.

After taking a bath and change clothes, the last Uchiha moves through the night to get into the ANBU captain's apartment, and he made it without problem like always.

Getting inside, he hears the sound of the water on the bathroom so that means she is taking a bath. He decides to wait for her at the living room, is not like he was some kind of perverted man or something. But suddenly, he stops in his tracks when he sees the sofa.

Clothes scattered over the sofa, and he can swear that those aren't Hinata's. She doesn't have that shoe size either. Looking back at her room, he sees how the man he saw earlier, Brandon Heat coming out of it fixing his shirt.

Brandon looks up to meet Sharingan eyes, but before he could ask, the bathroom door opens…

"Is my turn to get dressed Brandon…Brandon…where are you--?" then Hinata stood at the door of her bedroom with a towel around her torso, and saw Sasuke and Brandon looking at each other. Suddenly she stands in front of Brandon and talks to him. "Brandon is okay…he--" but before she can continue, she felt Sasuke move and she turned to face him.

"What he is doing here." Says the Uchiha, Hinata can feel the venom from his voice, the anger that was rising on his blood so much that it was going to boil.

"He is here because I say so." responds Hinata, she didn't like to be ordered around and she won't let it happen with Sasuke. "That doesn't answer my question."

"Because I don't understand your demand, this is my apartment."

"You didn't let Ryuichi or the others stays when they came. And even your teammates don't know where you live, and yet you let this man come in." Responds Sasuke, his voice gets higher by the second. The situation was tense and he wasn't going to listen to her.

Hinata: "Look--"

Sasuke: "Why he was in your room."

Hinata: "Just listen--"

Sasuke: "Why he was dressing up here."

Hinata: "If you let me talk--"

Sasuke: "Are you fucking him?!"

"I don't have to answer that!" Spat back Hinata; this was her apartment for Kami's sake! In that moment Sasuke was about to grab her arm when Brandon came into the picture. "Stop it." Says the dark haired man.

"Brandon, don't get into this," then she moves beside him still holding her towel around her torso, "he was about to leave." And with that look in her eyes, she meant it.

Sasuke couldn't believe this, she was in her apartment doing who knows what with this guy and she wanted him to listen?! He wasn't fool and he will make sure that she'll regret it.

Turning around and before he vanished, he stops in his track for a moment. "In leaving in a mission tomorrow, my very first mission since I came back and it will take two weeks. That's why I came earlier…I'm leaving in the morning." With that he left.

Hinata didn't say a thing, and Brandon looked at her, what's going on?


Getting back into his apartment is easier to say that there wasn't any furniture that suffered the anger of Uchiha Sasuke. By the time that the sun was up, his apartment was in a complete mess. Sitting in a corner, he had his eyes red for the lack of sleeping…and he constant water drops that started to fall from them even when he wasn't meant to cry. Maybe it was dirt in his eyes.

Standing up, he took a bath and put some fresh clothes, to be precise the ones that looked like he was a samurai.

Taking only a cup of orange juice he stood at the gates of Konoha four hours earlier than they had agreed the night before. But he was too angry to stay at his place and wait for the time.

Sasuke noticed over the years that when he is angry or too emotional, he can't eat a bite even for his life. His stomach felt too empty, but complete at the same time. So he decided to leave it until his anger slows down.

But when he saw Naruto and Sai talking and walking towards him, he knew that this wasn't going to be easy…


Hinata and Brandon left the village three hours ago, and then they suddenly stopped at some part of the forest because the dark haired man was looking for something through the bushes. "It was smart to leave it here Brandon; the ninjas at the gates would have made lots of questions about that thing."

While taking out what it seemed to be a middle size coffin-like box, Brandon looks back at her. "Can you still have good aim?" mutters the large man, while he puts the box on his back.

"Is like learning to walk over water," says the captain while she starts to walk away, "once you learn it, you can never forget."

Brandon just smiles and walks along muttering "ninja things…"


Naruto, Kakashi and Sai didn't need to know that Sasuke was indeed in bad mood. He practically hadn't stopped sine they left the village and since he was the only one who knows where are Orochimaru's prisons and laboratories, they hadn't say a thing.

But to lighten things up, Sai decided to bring some topic. "Hey, I was wondering. Did you have seen that weird guy that was seen with Hinata yesterday?" then Naruto turned to face the other ninja, "oh, you mean Brandon Heat?"

"So you know his name too? So it maybe confirms the rest of the information that came to me." With that Kakashi and Naruto looked at him excitedly. Being a ninja means gathering information, which is the same as being a gossiper.

"What are you waiting for?! Spill it out!" screams Naruto, he can't take his curiosity. Sasuke slow a bit his pace, not like he needed to listen this after all.

"Well, here it goes." Says the ninja while clears his throat. "I've heard that he came yesterday to the village asking for Hyuuga Hinata and described her like she used to look back at the chounnin days. You know; short hair and everything else."

"So it means that he knows her since a long time ago." States Kakashi, which was weird for someone to just come and ask for someone. "Yeah, and according to the guards at the gates he was pretty surprised when they mentioned that she was captain of the ANBU, so it must passed pretty long time since he saw her."

"Sai, I know that this is not your favorite part of the gossip so stop with the vague details." Says Naruto, and he was right. Only Sai gathers the best of the best, and Hinata was his favorite topic.

"Well, I've heard that Hinata was chose to make this mission alone, as you may hear from the Hokage."

"So?"

"That the change was made because," with that he breathes deeply, running and tell things is not easy, you know. "That Brandon guy paid a quite amount of money to take Hinata with him."

"WHAT?!" screams both Kakashi and Naruto and made Sasuke almost lost his balance on a tree branch. That the Brandon guy did what?!

"I've heard that he came with a duffel bag full of money because he wanted to hire her for a mission. Tsunade wasn't used to this so the only condition was that as long at the mission doesn't affect the village in any way. It was all in Hinata's decision…and she accepted not thinking twice, like it was already settled."

"Well, we saw her eating lunch with that Brandon guy and team zero yesterday." Says Kakashi while thinking about it, maybe he was already making he deal with Hinata before going to the Hokage. It wouldn't be surprise after all.

"And her mission with Brandon is for two weeks, and they left this morning…but…" then Sai looks down, like trying to think how to say it. "But what Sai?" asks Naruto, he hated those quiet moments to create suspense.

"I've checked in every hotel on the village, and he never slept in those places." Then they understood, maybe this Brandon Heat passed the night at Hinata's.

"Can you stop blabbering like girls and pay attention to the road? Or I'll leave you behind." Says rashly the Uchiha, he had enough remembering why he broke almost everything in his apartment last night.

"Is not my fault that you're not interested in Hinata. I still don't understand why you hate her so much." Says Sai defending himself, not like he cared of his teammates, they have mouths too.

"Is not your business and I careless about your wet dreams with that bitch so move! It will take us at least three days to reach the closest lab!" With that last 'order' they moved on, but not before Kakashi stopped them and made clear who is the leader of the team and the mission. It ended in a mean glare contest between Sasuke and him. But this one was worst than before…but luckily Kakashi won, Sasuke wasn't in mood to fight with him today…


The last two days have been like hell for Sasuke. Knowing himself, he can take one day less if they decide to follow his pace, but then again Kakashi was the one leading the mission and the fact that there wasn't any hurry into getting there after all. It's been a while since Orochimaru died so there's no much to do, and the fact that he doesn't like that Sai guy. He finally admits to be a Hinata-fan and he was doing everything possible to get her attention. Naruto even mentioned that he started to see her with good eyes, that she is not as bad as she seems.

'Yeah, right…' though the Uchiha while he listens to the blonde nin. They are too close to their destination and yet he wanted to rest a little, but then again, there's no hurry to go back to the village…no more.

Finally reaching into their destination, they could see the entrance on one of the Rock Mountains that signaled it as the entrance of one of Orochimaru's laboratories/prisons. While getting closer to the area, Sasuke suddenly stops and hides. The rest does the same thing, looking at him strangely, and then Kakashi notices. "Is too quiet for being safe, doesn't it?" asks the copy ninja, getting a nod from the Uchiha.

"You can hear the screams of the prisoners from here already, so this is strange. Unless the rumors about Orochimaru's death caused that the guards and those loyal to him to leave the place with the prisoners, but I doubt it."

"Why? It can be the logical thing." Says Sai, but then waited for Sasuke's answer.

"Everything is logical until you meet that snake's loyal subordinates, and then nothing turns illogical anymore." Responds the Uchiha, and then moves to get inside of the building until they hear something…

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"What the heck is that!?" screams Naruto between the bangs. The ninjas covered their ears; they never heard such sound, along with the screams of the people inside, like they were murdered.

"It seems that there's a massacre over there! But against what!?" asks Sai, then he got an idea. Opening a scroll, he started to draw snakes and rats on it. "Great now the artistic inspiration came to him!" screams the blonde nin half annoyed, but knowing what Sai was about to do. After some hand seals, he releases the animals he draw and send them under the door. Sasuke was glad that at least the weird guy will be useful for something.

Concentrating, Sai starts to see what is happening inside, and then he sees the back of two people: the ones who were causing all this. One was short and had curves, in conclusion a woman. But the other was taller, for not to say huge. And different from the first one, Sai couldn't sense any chakra from this one, like he was…

He didn't have time get into any conclusion when the sound stopped and nothing else can be heard. Not wanting to wait any longer, Naruto decides to sneak in. the rest followed him since it was actually a common idea, but didn't wanted to say anything in case that Naruto wanted to brag about being the smartest one.

When they got in, they have to follow Sasuke; he had been in those places before and knows better the halls and rooms of the labs. "We should go to the experiment room to see if any specimen is still alive."

"Specimen?"

"That's how Orochimaru called to the people he made experiments with and became failures. Beings so deformed that can't be along with the civilians or they are too dangerous to let them out so easily." Explains the Uchiha walking through the halls like it was his own house.

"And…what kind of…experiments were made here?" asks Sai, unsure of what Sasuke was about to respond. "Curse seal experiments, of course."

"Wait," says Naruto, "are you telling us that the freak of Orochimaru put you the curse seal without knowing the results?! That he was indeed experimenting with you?!"

"Exactly." Ends simply Sasuke, he always knew about it, but still he like challenges and in the end…the seal became his best ally.

But their conversation was cut when they started to see corpses along the way. There was also the pool of blood, but the thing that didn't explained was the fact that there wasn't any weapon in the area: no shuriken, no kunai, even a sword. But then Kakashi noticed something on the floor and bent down to pick up something.

"What's that Kakashi-sensei?" asks Naruto, it was a small metal thing that looked more like a pill. But it looked like it was empty, how weird.

"A bullet," then they looked at him, what is he talking about? "This is a weapon used mostly by other organizations as mafia or the military. I've heard of them only because we, the ninjas, never have done any contact with this people…and this is bad."

"But why? Are these bullets that dangerous?" Asks Sai while looking at the floor and sees that there's indeed dozens of bullets on the floor. "Contrary of the kunai and the shuriken, they get inside of the body and is hard to get them out, and most of the people injured by them die by blood loss. If we get hurt by one of these, even making it to Konoha doesn't guarantee anything since even Tsunade doesn't know how to treat them."

"So this is bad, if those who did this are still here. And the fact that maybe they are here for the experiments' papers." Says Sasuke while looking around, he can feel someone watching, but still can't tell from which direction.

Then, they heard people screaming. Running towards the sound, they see one of the prisons still with people on it. They were like seven, with different mutations all lover their bodies. Some were missing an eye, others with huge fangs and even one with two lizard tails. The scene was too shocking to let Naruto speak.

"Is Sasuke! You have to let us out; they are going to kill us!"

"It's horrible! You have to let us out!"

"They must be after the experiment secrets…!"

"Silence!" screams the Uchiha and the prisoners quiet down. Kakashi noticed how the prisoners reacted when they saw Sasuke, he expected to fear him for being Orochimaru's next vessel, but maybe they found sympathy in him.

Maybe that was the reason that Orochimaru declared Sasuke as the new Kage of the Sound before that battle.

"Now, tell me," says the Uchiha, "Who are 'they'? Who were the ones who killed the others?"

But when one of the prisoners was about to respond…

Bang!

…he suddenly falls back. Sasuke opens the prison to check out what happened when he and the others saw it.

The now dead prisoner had a small hole on the middle of his forehead, and it was bleeding. Then Kakashi saw the deadly injury and then at the bullet in his hand, "That's what a bullet can do, I hope that you got it now." With that the prisoners got into panic and pushed each other to leave the place as soon as possible, but…

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

In that moment the Kakashi team got down while the prisoners didn't got time to run and got hit by the bullets. When it suddenly stopped, Naruto looked at the others, "We have to move and get what we were sent for!" and when they stood up to run, Sasuke screamed.

Sasuke: "Oh damn it!"

But then he got up and gets running through the halls, he was the only one of the team who knows the place, so he can't stop by anything. When they got into a safe corner, Kakashi was the first to see the wound. "It only scratched your left shoulder, a couple inches to the right and it may hit your heart." Then the rest gasped, to it was that deadly those weapons indeed.

Meanwhile…


"Why you tried to hit him?" says the largest of the shadows while walking around the place and searching the rooms. "You asked me that? I prefer to ask why you pulled my gun don't you think?" says the shorter shadow, opening the doors with a kick.

"Let's finish this before is too late. The mafia already must know about Orochimaru and his experiments." Says the large shadow while fixes something in its hands. "Fine," responds the shorter shadow, "But I never though that Tsunade would have sent them here, why?"

"…"

"You're always so into conversations, don't you?" asks with sarcasm the shadow, but decided to deal with the item in its hands and opens one of the door with a kick.

You can tell that it was smirking, because they stopped at the entrance. "I'll work on the next phase now. When the Uchiha and the rest come here…everything will be gone."

"I'll leave that task in your hands…captain…"


After bandaging the wounded shoulder, Sasuke decided to go on. He was still stressed by the events days ago and he wasn't in the mood to fail on a mission, although they didn't know with what or who they're dealing with.

Then he remembered the place where they were heading, and looked back at the others. "We have to hurry, we are close to the main lab and those bastards must be following us." Says the Uchiha and they followed. "If we had Neij, or even Hinata in this mission. They're byakugan--" Says Sai with a sight.

"We don't need them to make this mission successful, bloodline limit is not everything, move!" responds the Uchiha to Sai, who got impressed by that statement. Then Kakashi shook his head, Tatsuha is getting too much into Sasuke's head.

When they got into the place, Sasuke immediately opens the door to see that everything was still untouched. Orochimaru was a neat freak; he even had a specific way to procedure with the corpses and the bodies of the still alive victims.

Sasuke: "But this place is too damn quiet…"

With that Naruto sights relieved and gets in. "We have to take what we came for and leave before we face those mafia things." Then the blonde nin sees a thin cord on the floor, he kneels in front of it and smiles. "Orochimaru sure made tramps like this, he he." Then Kakashi looks at the Uchiha's worried face, something was wrong.

"Orochimaru never believed in tramps." Says Sasuke answering the copy ninjas' mental question. Maybe it was coincidence.

Then Naruto moved his feet over the cord to avoid touch it, when he stepped in another in front of it, which was unseen. Doing that, paper seals started to show all over the floor, and up on the walls. In that moment Kakashi activates his Sharingan and looks back at the others. "THIS IS GOING TO EXPLODE, LET'S MOVE NOW!"

With that Sasuke pulls Naruto away by his collar and runs at all speed. Looking back they see that some of the prisoners were still moving, but it was too late to stop and help them…

When the last one of them stepped out, the mountain exploded.

The whole team flew away from the place. And from the top of some trees in a safe distance of the mountain there were watching the two shadows. "So you made it that they activate the explosives inside of the place?"

"Correction, I knew that one of them is bad detecting bombs and tramps, so I made it happen."

"I see…"

"So how far is the second lab?"

"A day approximately." With that both shadows disappeared.


A/N: sorry for leaving you this in a cliffhanger, but decided to post it like this for now. I'm already writing and working on the continuation of this, so don't worry.

And the new character that appeared is Brandon Heat from the anime series "Gungrave". I think that Brandon is HOT (is not hard to find actually good looking characters on the anime lately.) from Grave and Brandon; I prefer Brandon a LOT.

The song mentioned by Hinata and played on the restaurant scene was:

Artist: A perfect circle

Song: Judith

Album: A perfect circle

I like this song, the first that I've read of this band…lovely.

For some odd reason when I mention the songs used on a chapter, they doesn't show when I upload the document. I hope this time shows it.