OK here we are, back at it again with Chapter 3

Interruptions

It was midday by the time the Uchiha party reached their destination. They were 7 strong and had traveled for 3 weeks to reach the area, over some mountains in the south end of the fire nation and avoiding other stray groups that had been feathered around the area. All to reach an area that to their surprise seemed very unimpressive. "We will make camp here." one of them ordered resting his back on one of the trees and lowering his pack. The rest followed suit unpacking and getting a perimeter secured so that they could conduct their investigation safely in case any of the other clans sensed what they had a few weeks prior.

They had been the closest clan to the Great Chakra burst, or the disturbance as some were calling it, but it had taken many meetings about whether it was safe, in the middle of the war to spare a large unit, to investigate such matters. In the end, the decision was made that whatever was there, be it an asset or a threat, they were to find out discreetly and before any of the other clans did. They were the Uchiha and apart from being one of the strongest clans they were often one of the most highly regarded and feared, having an overpowering weapon on their side would certainly tip the scales in their favor for winning the never-ending war. After they set up their perimeter they moved towards the mysteriously gone signature that had shocked their community, the signature had disappeared a few days ago but they were able to find an area that was slightly irregular compared to the others.

Izuna moved forward to the unusual area, he reached his hand out, slowly waving it through the air he turned back to the group, "This is clearly some sort of highly advanced genjutsu paired with seals I have never seen. I.. I really have never seen anything like this." a few of the others came up next to him activating their sharingan as they inspected the area. They were able to tell it was some sort of barrier built by layers and layers of seals and genjutsus. This technique, to a much lesser extent, had been done before and they began debating ways to undo it. The thing standing in their way was the fact that none of them were familiar with any of the barriers in front of them. They were very clearly and strongly done, but they could not recognize where or how to break it. Izuna walked forward more into it through the area he could sense something around him there were areas that looked the same almost like copycat bushed and tree patterns and he could see some small errors as he walked back towards the camp where he meet his brother at the edge.

"What have you been able to tell brother?" Madara asked as Izuna stood by his side, "You are one of the best in our Clan save our father and late brother when it comes to genjutsu." Madara stared intently with his onyx eyes.

"There are weak spots, but brother, I do not recognize any of these seals. I can sense and feel how they are working but they are so much more advanced…" Izuna was pacing in thought, but his eyes had a shine to them at the prospect of perhaps uncovering some advanced techniques. Finally taking a breath he continued, muttering, "I don't think that they are going to be a lot of help" he joked nodding towards the others.

"Well father couldn't really send the best for something that he wasn't even sure would pay off." Madara looked off in the distance, scanning the area. He began to wonder why his father sent them out here, "I don't know if anyone could even breakthrough, our best bet would be to find a weak spot and enter the genjutsu, investigate from the inside."

"Is that even possible!?" Izuna looked up pulled from his thoughts at his brothers suggestion.

"You tell me" he smiled down at his no longer too little brother, knowing that his gears would be turning and turning thinking of how to try it. They were both prodigies, it is easier to advance quickly when you are on the battlefield at nine. Madara had a natural talent for fighting. He had not yet received his sharingan, but he already had a reputation on the battlefield as a natural born killer. His brother though, he had to watch out for, he was the smart one. They were both talented, no one disputed that, but it was always Izuna who caught on faster even if Madara was more powerful. That was probably why they worked well together. "Hopefully we can work this out before the Senju get here." Madara said entering the camp, everyone's attention drawn to the two prize children of the head house."They were further out than we were but they have a strong sense for these types of things." Madara said, informing the team of his thoughts.

Izuna sat on a nearby rock, deep in thought. As the others ate deliberating other possible solutions, Madara would occasionally look to his brother. Still sitting, occasionally looking up if he heard a theory or idea that he might use or apply, but usually he just stayed in his own head occasionally drawing a few symbols on the ground. Madara was looking at the camp that they had made checking to see if they had set a good perimeter. If the senju came there would be a fight, and he had no way of knowing what size of force they would bring. They would be lucky if they were a few days ahead of the Senju clan, but if some of the other clans had set out before they had like the Huga or any other. They could be facing something larger than just a little fight. It would be a good sized battle depending on how many people were sent on each side.

If only the elders had not taken so long for their decision. It was constantly frustrating to be pulled back and forth between opinions and ideas with no action. They wanted to plan everything and they had the right simply because they were elders. They deserved his respect for surviving so long in this war, but they don't know the same battlefield anymore. They have the same views that they have had since they were young. That is just how the uchiha are, stuck in the past, but he was the one that was going to stop this war. He was going to break this cycle of war that keeps the war going. He was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of Izunas musings.

"It would leave us very vulnerable." Izuna muttered to himself.

"How vulnerable?" Madara asked immediately shifting thoughts.

"Well we would need all of the sharingan users who have experience with seals here to hold each of the genjutsuses open. Then one person could possibly force their way through the rest of the way." Izuna brought his thumb to his mouth biting the nail as he continued, "We might be able to spare one as a look out, but I do not think we could send anyone far for a fight. I would need two or even all of us to hold onto it for long enough for someone to scout the area."

"Someone would have to use brute force to pound their way through the last few layers with strong bursts of chakra…. Into something completely unknown…. Mostlikly giving our location away….. And with a few guards . Only a fool would say yes to this brother."Madara stated as he looked down with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yes, a fool indeed." Izuna said a smile creeping on his face as he looked back at his brother, earning more of a frown from Madara, "Stop that." Madara barked

"Stop what brother?" Izuna asked trying to pull his grin back in

"You know exactly what I mean, I may be your brother. And you may have gotten your sharingan before me, but none of that changes the fact that you should not act this way when on a mission. There are lives at stake." Madara loved his little brother and in fact enjoyed the teasing and fighting the two often did. He wanted to live in a world where people like his brother did not have to go on the battlefield and kill what precious kindness they had left, but they were not in that world yet. And as the children of the Uchiha clan head they had an image to maintain, especially in front of other clan members. As much as he hated when he had to say it, he knew that they both needed reminding sometimes, "What would father say."

With that a cold wind went through them both. Izuna was no longer trying to hide his grin, it was gone. "Way to kill the fun Madara."

"We are about to do something dangerous Izuna, we could be going into battle soon and we can not afford to lose anyone."

"Yeah, but to be fair when are we not in those situations?"

"That does not mean that we should put ourselves into unnecessarily uncompromised positions." Madara said looking off into the woods

"To be honest the longer we wait to do this the longer the likelihood others might get here. By doing this sooner rather than later we get in and out faster so that the chances of getting into a battle while compromised are lower too."

"Ok"

"And on top of that, if we are able to get anything valuable in there we might just be able to defend against the people who would attack us. Oh, oh wait ok then you are agreeing?"

"Izuna, I disagree and agree on a lot of those points. Mostly because we don't know the complexity that most of these contain. But whatever we do I agree we need to try something soon. "

The two sat in silence for a moment before looking at each other and nodded. Standing as they moved towards the camp Madara addressed the other team members, "only one shift of rest tonight. Two groups split between those with knowledge of seals and those without. Then those sleeping now will guard, Isuna and those with knowledge of seals who will sleep second and will join him after the rest to make a hole in the barrier, while I enter."

In a few moments as they had split into one group of three and another group of four, and after their short rest Izuna instructed the three other members what to do. It took longer than they had expected, almost three hours to break through the initial layers. Then it happened there grew a sliver of light erupting from seemingly nowhere.

Madara looked to his brother," Izuna had sweat trickling down his face which was clenched with frustration, "How long can you hold it brother?"

"4 minutes", Izuna huffed out, nodding Madara moved quickly into the space pushing as much chakra out as he could he bursted through a layer then feeling some resistance like chakra strings surrounding him he pushed more and more of his overwhelming chakra out bursting through into a blinding bright light. He fell to the ground breathing heavily from the chakra exhaustion. But that sensation and pain did not last long after a few moments he felt a warm green glow envelop him and he rolled over staring up at the unbelievable canopy of cherry blossoms, in moments he felt is energy being replenished and he could stand again. As he got up, he looked at the area where he had fallen. It had turned brown and black in stark contrast to the bright green of the mossy soft grass that covered the floors.

Everywhere he looked all he could see were cherry blossom trees, the sky above was a bright blue and there was a soft refreshing wind that flew the blossoms in beautiful patterns caressing his face like the softest of silk. Every breath was intoxicating, he had never felt so calm. How long had it been? He blinked a few times looking back down to where he had been the dead grass bringing him back to where he needed to be. He jumped from tree to tree fighting the overwhelming feeling to sink into the ground and let the chakra envelop him. There was chakra everywhere, in the trees, grass, and wind. There was some chakra in every living thing, but it was all the same here, healing and warm pulling him further and further in. He could sense no other chakra signatures, and as much as he wanted to let himself succumb to it he knew it was time to head back to the seal. There was something off. Like being surrounded in complete darkness. It was all-consuming but at the same time missing something. If there were any other ninja in here he could not sense them, but they could just as easily have blended into the trees if they had the exact same chakra signature as everything else in this forest of pink.

He turned back to the spot where he entered and he could see a dark silver slowly closing, how long had they been holding it? He didn't have much time but he felt he had the chakra back and using as much as he could, he forced his way back barreling and tumbling into the ground. His skin was burning, as though it was on fire. His lungs felt dry as though the air had lost any moisture, screaming for whatever he had been breathing before. Then he heard the screams his eyes dry and out of focused looked up as he saw his brother in front of him holding two kunai as an enemy nin was in front of him attacking.

Everything in Madara's body protested him moving, but he had gotten through worse in the past and bolted up grabbing a weapon on his belt he jumped to Izuna's side-swiping at the enemy ninja.

"They outnumber us 2 to 1 brother," Izuna said breathlessly, his Sharingan brightly contrasting his tired appearance.

"Hn" Madara huffed out, "Then we should be just fine." he smirked digging his feet into the ground bolding forward killing the ninja in front of them in two strikes. They had their faces covered but he could at least see they were not the Hyugas and for that he was thankful. He could feel his legs go numb but that was probably due to the chakra exhaustion which ignored pushing forward.

He heard the clang of kuni being deflected as he looked back to see three of his men fighting against a barrage of kuni. Moving to help them he analyzed the rest of the field quickly. He could not see any of the enemy nin using their kekkei genkai and though they were not as good as his men he could see that things were not looking very good. His men were tired and weining fast, and he wasn't sure how long he could go for either. He got what information he could and there was no reason to hold their position any longer, so he moved to flank the nin bargaining his men with kuni as he made the signal for a retreat. Attacking the enemy nin from behind he saw there were three, he took out two but there was a third that escaped his attack. Flying back making signs for what looked like a water jutsu he began making signs for a firewall beating the ninja in front of him a wall burst in front of himself and along the way to his brother killing the two other enemies that Izuna had been in combat with. Then things began to blur and he could feel the cold sting of rain on his skin as the firewall danced in front of him. He could hear in the distance his brother call out to him.

His chakra was low, dangerously low and there was little he could do other than to try and stay conscious as the world began to go numb around him. As everything began to fade he could feel arms pull around his numb frame. And as darkness clouded his vision sakura petals floated in front of him.

Preview

"Well it is raining sideways now," Sakura said plainly looking out her window at the horrible storm that had taken over the whole area for a few days. She was in a numb mind space, she had done all the repairs to the house, had all of her medical necessities labeled sorted and stored away and cleaned the whole place at least twice. There was nothing to do but watch the rainfall, and she had been doing this for at least an hour.

Stretching her small arms in the air she cracked her neck, and after looking around at the room again confirming there was in fact absolutely nothing to do, she relaxed back into a new position by the window. "Oh," she said in a dull voice, "Now the rain is going sideways in a new direction…."

Her head bobbed as the waves of rain shifted and lulled her into a half-sleep. She was not sure how long she had been asleep. The rain made the day grey at all hours and any shift in the light darkened everything. It must have been close to 7, no 8 at night but it was hard to tell without any clock in the room, really it could have been any time between 8 or 10.

OK So here it is what did you think

I added that bit at the bottom when I realized Sakura was not in the chapter at all so I hope you enjoyed that little blurb on her

I'm Looking forward to the meet and greet for the next chapter hopefully it doesn't take as long as this one did