A/N: Happy 2020 everybody!

"I found the footprint." Sakura spoke drawing everyone's attention towards the upper left corner of the crib.

The jonin examined the footprint.

"It's quite big, most likely from a male." Kurenai stared at the print noticing an extremely unusual detail.

"But…"

"Why doesn't it have any toes?"

"Well, that is incredibly strange…" Sakura scanned the footprint in confusion. "There is no way that someone could leave a complete detailed footprint without the toes touching the floor."

"Maybe his toes were wrapped in bandages or something?" Ino added.

"Could be, but why didn't the bandages leave a mark on the floor in… wait… what is the footprint casted in even?" Shikamaru frowned.

Kurenai looked closer at the footprint. "It's some kind of white powdery substance…"

"Baby powder?" Naruto suggested.

Asuma nodded and looked at the items on the table beside the crib. "I don't see any baby powder."

Hinata walked closer to the table. "I see faint drag marks on the floor, like the table had been moved." She dragged the table to match the distance of the marks then looked behind it. "Huh?" Her eyes widened. "You guys, look!"

Naruto rushed next to her and looked. "There's the baby powder! It's spilled! And more of these weird footprints!"

"So you're telling me that someone hid behind the table for who knows how long and just waited to grab the baby?" Kiba said loudly to which Akamaru barked worriedly.

"Could be the case." Shikamaru answered. "That's why cutting the bars on the window didn't disturb anyone. No one was here, the kidnapper got through the window, hid behind the table and waited for Yuutsu's daughter to put the baby in the crib and then took her."

Naruto nodded and turned towards the window. He looked at it puzzled then started hitting the bars repeatedly with his foot.

"W-what are you doing?" Hinata asked confused.

"How did he get in here?" He groaned and kicked again but this time the bars fell off. He blinked and hopped though the window and picked them up. "Hey, the metal looks weird, doesn't it?"

"Hm?" Hinata examined the ends of the bars where they had been cut. "The metal is cracked. That could only happen if it had been heated to an incredible degree when it was cut."

"Hey! And then cuz it was hot, the bastard put it back and it melted back together! That's why it was hard to get it off!" Naruto concluded.

Hinata smiled and nodded vigurously. "Yes!"

Naruto smiled back then chuckled proudly.

"My, the teamwork." Kakashi commented making them both blush a bit.

"Hey, Kiba. Can you and Akamaru follow the smell of the baby powder?" Shikamaru interrupted. "If this guy stepped in it, it might lead us to him."

"On it!" Kiba jumped though the window and Akamaru hopped out of his hood onto the ground and sniffed around before barking.

"We've got something, let's go!" The two started running followed by the other genin.

"I'll follow just in case, you two investigate and ask around."Said Kakashi to his fellow jonin who nodded in agreement.

After about twenty feet out of the town gates they stopped. Kiba and Akamaru sniffed around. "Damn it! I lost the scent." Suddenly he hissed.

"What?" Naruto frowned.

"I smell blood… and something else. I don't recognize it but it's pungent."

Kakashi sighed. "Alright… all of you split up into pairs and cover the ground around this area and see if you can find anything. Sasuke and I will go around the gate and look of any signs of a break in."

The genin nodded and instinctively split up into their usual pairs: Kiba and Shino, Shikamaru and Choji, Naruto and Hinata and Ino and Sakura.

Kiba and Shino continued up the mountain. "Let us see if we can reach the top." Shino suggested.

"Ugh!" Kiba shook his head. "Man, what is this stench? It's hurting my nose!" Akamaru whined and rubbed his paw over his snout.

"That is strange…" Shino looked up. "My insects are retrieving. They're coming back but they have not covered larger ground."

"They probably can't stand the smell either. Whatever it is, it's everywhere. I can't track it down." Kiba rubbed his nose.

"Let's investigate the area for a while, then when you can no longer stand the smell we will go back."

Kiba nodded and tucked Akamaru into his hood then pulled his jacket over his nose.

After about thirty minutes of searching through the forest, Choji and Shikamaru ran into Sakura and Ino.

"Did you find anything?" Choji asked. The two girls shook their heads.

"We haven't found a single thing either." Shikamaru responded.

"There is absolutely nothing here. And I don't smell anything either. "Ino frowned.

"And it doesn't help that we don't know what we're looking for." Sakura added. "The most ordinary thing could be a clue."

"Yeah, you're right…" Choji agreed.

On the other side of the forest Naruto and Hinata moved through the bushes.

"It's a lot darker in this area, isn't it?" Naruto looked around.

"Yes." Hinata agreed. "I think we might have gone too far out, maybe we should get back."

"Hey, what is that?" Naruto pointed ahead.

"A cave?" Hinata blinked.

"Can you check it out?"

She nodded and activated her byakugan. "It's empty but there seems to be about a dozen wooden crates inside but I cannot see inside them for some reason."

"Ok, let's go in there." Naruto ran towards it.

Hinata hesitantly followed.

After entering the cave they were left in complete darkness. Naruto gently grabbed a hold of her hand. "Lead the way." He whispered. She activated her byakugan again and carefully led them further inside. "We've reached the crates." She whispered back. At one point she stopped and Naruto felt her fingers twitch in his hand.

"What is it?" He whispered again.

"Do… do you hear that?" She whispered in a panicked tone.

Naruto frowned in confusion and focused his ears on any kind of noise. Then he heard it… a faint but very recognizable sound.

"No way…" He whispered completely frozen. "Is that… a baby crying?"

"N-Naruto we…" She was interrupted as he suddenly dragged her out of the cave. "What are you doing?"

"We need light." He ran up to a tree and broke off a branch then wrapped a paper bomb around the top of it. Just as the paper bomb was lighting up he put it out with his foot leaving enough of a flame to light up the tree branch.

"There we go, now come on!"

They ran back into the cave and he stuck the branch into the ground before they started rummaging through the crates.

"Be careful! We don't know what's inside." She warned him as he pulled of the lid of the first one. "This one's empty… hey, what's this?" He held up the lid which had a seal stuck to the top of it.

"It's a privacy protector seal. That's why I can't see through the crates. But the writing on it is very old, these kind of seals have not been used in over fifty years. And unlike the current ones, they wear off after a while as the ink is so weak it fades as it is exposed to oxygen." She explained while frantically opening the crates which all turned out to be empty… until the cry was finally audible.

"Oh, Geez!" Naruto yelled dropping one of the lids. He leaned down into one of the crates. "Shh, shh, it's okay."

Hinata gasped and ran to his side as he carefully lifted the crying infant from the crate. "She's ok, thank Goodness!"

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed. He looked at the dark blanket the baby was wrapped in. "What is this?" He pulled it off of the baby. "It has blood on it!"

He handed it to Hinata who examined it. "It's dried blood. We should take this back with us as evidence."

"Yeah, let's go." Naruto agreed. "Shhh, it's ok little one, you're safe now."

Not far from them, the other genin gathered discussing their findings… there was not much to say as none of them found anything.

Shikamaru rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Damn… I guess now we just wait for Hinata and Naruto to come back and hope that they found something."

At that moment Ino shouted. "Hey, you two!"

The others looked in the direction she was waving at to see the couple coming towards them.

Ino noticed that Naruto was carrying something and shouted again as they got closer."You got something?!"

"Shhhhh!" Naruto shushed her surprising her. "I just got her to fall asleep!" Naruto whispered angrily.

Sakura looked at him confused which turned to shock when she realized what was in his arms. "Oh my Goodness…"

The others gathered around them. "Is that…?" Kiba whispered in shock.

"Yep." Naruto smiled. "She seems alright."

"Ok then, let's get her back to her parents."

"Roger."

When they got back to the gates they saw Kakashi and Sasuke walking towards them. Kakashi's eye widened at the bundle in his student's arms and he sighed in relief immediately realizing what it was while Sasuke remained expressionless. Naruto smiled at him before looking around and spotting Yuutsu's daughter who was sitting on her porch and ran up to her. The others watched as the woman approached him while her eyes got wider and wider before they got clouded in tears. She cried out in happiness as she grabbed her baby gently and kissed her forehead before hugging it while sobbing. Her husband run up to them and his jaw dropped in shock before he took the baby from his wife and cradled it in his arms, he panted trying to stop his tears while his wife hugged Naruto.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she cried.

"No need to thank me, that's what I came here for." Naruto said softly.

She smiled at him before turning back to her baby and hugging her again.

Hinata smiled at the scene. It was such a relief. However there are others who are still missing.

A few minutes later, the jonin and genin gathered in a room to discuss their next move.

"We need to go further out but we cannot let our guards down." Kurenai commented.

"But what about the smell? My head still aches." Kiba frowned.

"Initially, I would have told you to stay here and watch over the people but…"

"No way! I don't wanna stay here and do nothing!"

"Let me finish, Kiba."

"Excuse me." A voice interrupted them.

One of the guards from the gate walked into the room. "You found this wrapped around the child, correct?" He held up the bloody piece of fabric.

"Yes." Hinata confirmed.

"Then I'm afraid we might be in great trouble." The man answered.

"And what makes you say that… um…?" Kakashi looked at him.

"Kyojin." The man revealed his name. "There is something that you all need to know." He took a seat and cleared his throat. "About four decades ago, this land was ruled by the Hisan Clan, ten very cruel people, seven men and three women. They would enslave and torture anyone who set foot on their territory, no matter who it was, a child, the elderly, a pregnant woman… they had no boundaries. Our grandparents fought them for a decade before they managed to defeat them and killed all then of them. They buried them on the other side of the mountain. We had recently discovered that their graves have disappeared, however, we assumed that it was due to a floor three years ago. But now… it might be more sinister…"

"What do you mean?" Kurenai asked carefully.

"This." Kyojin held up the fabric. "This is what their leader Lord Saigai was buried in."

"What?" Naruto exclaimed.

"How do you know?" Asuma asked.

"Because I helped my father burry him, I was a child back then. I clearly remember covering his bloody face with this cloth because I could not stand to look at it."

"So you're saying that the blood on it is from his face?" Ino stammered out.

"Look at it and tell me what you see." He spread the fabric in front of him.

Naruto looked at it and saw what appeared to be an impression of facial features… an eye, a nose and cheeks. It was hard to see at first but then it became apparent. "That's freaky!" He shouted. "I need to go wash my hands. Ugh!"

"So what does this all mean? He can't be back from the dead." Shikamaru said.

"It could mean that the person who kidnapped the baby could have found the grave and dug him up and took his clothes." Sakura added. "Or his corpse could have surfaces from the flood and that's how he was found."

"Yes." Kurenai agreed. "That could be the case with the other nine as well."

"So do we go looking for these corpses?" Kiba asked.

"I think we should, we haven't gone to the other side of the mountain yet." Asuma added.

"But wait a minute…" Choji spoke up. "If it was from the flood, shouldn't it have washed off the blood?"

"Exactly…" Shikamaru sighed.

"So they could be grave robbers." Sasuke looked at the guard. "Does your town have a graveyard?"

"Yes." The man answered. "But ours is inside these gates in the darkest part of the town. I was there recently, no signs of disturbance."

"This is creeping me out…" Naruto murmured. "We should be looking for alive people, not dead people. How about we try to find the missing ones first, maybe they're alive still, like the baby."

"Then if that is all Mr. Kyojin, we should get going." Kakashi looked at him getting only a nod of agreement.

Naruto got up first. "Yeah!... After I wash my hands."

Hinata quietly got up and followed after him disgusted by the fact that she held something that covered a dead body.

"Ew." Kiba added with a smile. Akamaru whined with compassion.

As they moved further up the steep mountain the land became darker and gloomier. The earth became blacker and wetter, the air became colder and the occasional wind seemed to sting the skin. The leaves on the trees and bushes once green now dulled into a grayish color and the flowers were replaced by poisonous mushrooms.

Kiba sniffed. "The smell is almost gone, but now I just smell mould and blood."

"Ew." Naruto mocked him.

Kiba glared at him before he rolled his eyes and kept walking.

Hinata suppressed her smile but Shikamaru didn't even try to hide his.

It didn't take them long to reach the top of the mountain as the jagged surface provided plenty of edges to grab onto which made it easier to climb. Once they reached the top the wind became sharper and any trace of greenery was completely gone.

Hinata scanned the surroundings internally proud of herself as her training with Naruto enabled her to see much further than before. Her gaze stopped when she saw a large rectangular hole in the ground at the bottom of the opposite side of the mountain.

"Um… sensei?"

Kakshi turned his attention to where she was pointing at and he frowned.

"Do you see it?" She asked.

"Yes." He replied.

"See what?" Naruto stood next to her and glanced down. "That's not what I think it is, right?"

"If you are thinking about a dug up grave, it is exactly so." Hinata answered.

"You've got to be kidding me… did someone actually dig up Saigai's body?" Kiba asked.

"I see signs of a flood but the water seems to have stopped about six feet from the gravesite so it definitely was not the cause." Hinata added.

"What a drag…" Shikamaru shook his head. "So what do you think they did to the corpse?"

"There might have been something in the grave they wanted, or the kidnapper could be someone related to the guy so they took his body somewhere else." Sasuke added.

"Any theory is better than thinking the guy got up and walked out of his own freaking coffin." Naruto barked.

"Um… but there was no coffin…" Hinata examined the hole again.

"So they took the coffin too." Ino added.

"No… there was no coffin at all." Hinata spoke again. "I see dig marks but the earth in the hole is textured. If there was a coffin there it would be flat."

"Kyojin said that he put the cloth over his face when they buried him so that means that they didn't put him in a coffin." Sasuke added. "And why would they? He was their worst enemy."

"But why is the hole rectangular then?" Choji asked.

"The dig marks are very smooth." Hinata analyzed the hole further. "My byakugan has a heat sensor. The ground seems to be colder up top and warmer on the edges which means that it's dryer." Her yes went wide and she turned around. "If it's dry it must mean that it was heated up by something since there is no sunlight there. Maybe by the same jutsu the culprit used to cut the bars on the windows! It would explain the smooth edges."

"Excellent work, Hinata." Kakashi smiled.

They climbed down the side of the mountain and got closer to the gravesite.

"The ground is disturbed in many places clearly indicating the other graves." Shino observed. "However, the graves are not marked. So how did the culprit know which grave to disrupt?"

Shikamaru suddenly looked up. "How do we know whose grave it is?"

Kurenai blinked. "We don't. We just assumed it was the leader's."

Naruto groaned. "More confusing things!"

"Hey, guys." Kiba called out. "I see the impression of the skeleton in the ground."

Hinata activated her byakugan again."Yes… the skull… the vertebrae… the ribs… the pelvic bone… the patella… the talus…" She stopped and swallowed. "Oh dear…"

"What is it?" Naruto walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"I see the bones of his feet…"

"… but I don't see the toes…"