The group was walking back to the town not having found anything else to help them solve the mystery besides the eerie grave. They walked through the forest, double checking around in case they missed something while the jonin went over the evidence they gathered so far. After looking at it all summed up, they realized they didn't have much to go on. On top of that, the forest seemed even darker and colder than before.

"Argh!" Kiba shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Kurenai asked right away.

"That stench is back!" Kiba coughed. "It's burning my nostrils!"

Choji sniffed around. "I don't smell anything."

"Me neither." Ino agreed.

Naruto sniffed the air as well. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach. It was gone in an instant but the strange but familiar feeling of anger was still there. "Fox… what…" He inhaled again but this time his nasal cavity was coated in an acidic stench. "Ugh, that's awful!" he rubbed his nose.

Kiba looked at him. "You can smell it?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I don't know but we need to get out of here, I can't take it anymore." Kiba covered Akamaru's face and looked towards Kurenai who nodded along with Asuma and Kakashi so they quickened their pace.

Once they got to the town gates Kiba shouted. "God damn it!"

"What?" Sasuke turned to him.

"The smell is still here!"

"It's not coming from the town, is it?" Sakura asked suddenly.

"Let's hope not." Shikamaru frowned. "Let's go."

They entered through the gates but as soon as they were spotted by the people they started running towards them.

"Again! It's happened again!" One of the men yelled.

"What happened again?" Naruto asked loudly.

"My daughter! My ten year old Ginga is missing!" The man cried out in sorrow.

The genin looked at each other completely stunned.

Hinata gasped and looked at Naruto who seemed to be very agitated. She reached for his hand and he flinched away making her flinch back in shock. "Naruto…"

"How did that happen?! We told you to not let the kids out of the main building and out of your sight!" Kurenai shouted.

"We didn't!" The man yelled back. "I was with her the whole time, I didn't leave the room!"

"Yes!" Another man defended him. "All the kids were there and then suddenly we noticed that we couldn't see her so we looked around, and when we couldn't find her I went outside and alerted the others. We looked everywhere while you were gone, we cannot find her!"

"We don't even know when she left the room and none of the other kids noticed either." A woman explained.

"Mommy." A gentle voice called out. The woman turned around to see her son peeking out of the main house window. "What is it, dear?"

"Will I get in trouble?"

The woman looked at him confused. "Why would you be in trouble, sweetie?"

"Because I saw something… but I was too scared to tell anyone…" The boy fidgeted with the zipper on his shirt.

Naruto walked up to the window. "Will you tell me what you saw?"

The boy hesitated.

"It's ok, you won't get in trouble." Naruto added softly.

The boy nodded and swallowed. "Ginga said that she smelled something funny outside… so she went to see what it is… I wanted to see too so I went after her… but she was not there anymore…" He spoke quietly, looking at his feet. "I didn't see where she went, I promise…"

Naruto nodded and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Tell me, what's your name?"

"Seiun…" He answered shyly.

"Did you see anything else, Seiun?" Naruto asked quietly.

He nodded slowly. "I saw someone jump over the gates."

"Jump over them? But there are spikes on top!" Shikamaru blinked.

"I swear." The boy fidgeted.

"We believe you." Naruto comforted him. "Did you see the guy's face?"

Seiun nodded hesitantly.

Naruto's eyes wdened. "Can you tell me what he looked like?"

Seiun swallowed and leaned in towards the blonde. "He was wearing black… and he was kinda… ugly…" He whispered. "His face was kind of… green… he looked like a zombie."

Naruto turned towards his team mates. "A zombie, huh?"

Shikamaru rubbed his forehead. "You've got to be kidding me…"

"Oh, it must have been a mask." His mother brushed off his unrealistic description.

"Mom, I'm not lying!" The boy leaned out the window. "It wasn't a mask! His feet were green too! And they were big!"

"I believe you dear, but are you sure they weren't, well… shoes?"

"Well…" The boy scratched his arm. "They could have been, I guess… maybe he wasn't barefoot because I didn't see his toes when he was climbing the fence."

Naruto's mouth opened. He looked at Kakashi who just frowned.

"Alright, let's stop wasting time." Asuma spoke. "Seiun, can you show us where you saw him?"

The boy nodded and pointed towards the fence.

As they headed out again Naruto turned back. "Keep your kids safe at all times… and I promise we'll find Ginga, believe it!" He ran after the others and caught up to Hinata. "Hey." He whispered to her.

"She stopped. "Are you ok?"

He exhaled. "Back in the forest, when the smell hit me… I felt the Fox's chakra. I think he's trying to tell me something."

"Do you think it has to do with the smell? And how come you are the only one besides Kiba who can smell it?" She replied worried. "And it looks like Ginga could smell it too…"

Naruto thought for a second. "Let's catch up to the others." After they did so he spoke up again. "Hey guys, I think the smell might have something to do with that zombie guy."

"Do you think he could be emitting the smell?" Shino asked.

"Yeah, I mean, the town smells all of a sudden and he's there."

"If that is true, then back then when we smelled it in the forest…" Kiba trailed off in realization.

"I think he knows we're here… he's following us… so he waited until we were out of the town so he could kidnap Ginga." Sakura concluded.

"If we're right then he might kill this time, because he probably didn't know we're here when he kidnapped the baby so he saved her for later, so to speak." Shikamaru said.

"Well I'm not gonna let that happen!" Naruto shouted. "Let's split up and find this piece of crap."

Kakashi nodded. "We'll split into our teams and we'll meet back at the town before sunset. We can't risk staying out after dark until we find out what we're dealing with."

Team 10 wrestled with stubborn thin branches on their way up the mountain. Ino squealed as her hair kept getting caught in the branches. "Ugh, if someone went through here, there's no way they made it out without a scratch."

"I agree." Shikamaru almost whispered as he saw a small piece of fabric stuck on one of the bushes. "It looks like the cloth the baby was wrapped in."

"So… do you think the zombie guy went through here?" Choiji asked with a slight tremble in his voice.

"That's the only explanation for the fabric being here." Asuma confirmed.

Ino squealed again. "Ew! What is this?!" She battled the branches to get behind her confused sensei who looked at the branch she was pointing at. Asuma's eyes squinted at the reddish blob hanging from the branch. "Appears to be a piece of flesh."

"Is…Is is human?" Ino asked disgustedly.

Asuma inspected it closer. Seeing greenish skin and fine red veins branching out from under the flesh he confirmed her fear. "Yup."

"Is it the zombie guy's?"

"I think so, but… these branches are definitely not strong enough to cause an injury like this." Asuma frowned.

Shikamaru looked at the piece of skin. "Hey, look at the edges. They don't look torn to me. It's like the flesh slid off of him."

Ino gagged while Chouji gulped nervously.

"Are we actually dealing with a zombie here?" Chouji looked at his sensei who sighed and just motioned for them to keep going.

A bit further to the east, Kiba sniffed around and sighed. "Finally, the smell is gone."

"Good for you, but bad for us." Kurenai commented. "That could mean we aren't near our target."

"Yeah, but are we sure he's the one causing this smell? And how come you guys don't smell anything?"

"Well, we aren't completely sure." Kurenai said pushing a dried branch out of her way causing it to snap. "And… I don't know why we don't smell it." She threw the branch onto the ground and blinked hearing the sound of crunchy dead leaves cushion the fall of the branch. "How is everything dead in this forest? It's not fall."

"The soil looks very dry. A drought and minimal sunlight would be a reasonable explanation."Shino said.

"What is it?" Kiba's voice made Shino and Kurenai stop and turn to see Sakura who had already stopped a few seconds ago. She looked up with a frown. "But Naruto could smell it, right?"

"Yeah…" Kiba frowned as well. "And the girl that went missing could too, but no one around her hadn't smelled anything."

"There must be a reason that only the three of you could." Kurenai spoke. "Kiba, it is probably due to your special sense of smell. When it comes to the girl, maybe she had a sharp nose as well, or the attacker could have used it as bate to somehow hypnotize her. As for Naruto…" She thought. "Definitely due to the fox's chakra." She bit her lip. "Well, it could be due to the incredibly large chakra reserve he possesses." She proclaimed but managed to hide the nervousness in her voice. "I hope that sounds believable."

"Maybe." Sakura replied. "The idiot's chakra control is horrible. He probably let some of it leak out and it gathered the smell so it sharpened his nose."

"Could be so." Kurenai closed her eyes in relief before continuing. "Ok. Let's move."

"Gaaahhh, this is impossible!" Naruto slumped his rear on a rock in frustration.

"Be quiet, you idiot." Sasuke crossed his arms and leaned slightly against a tree next to him.

"We've been looking for hours, and there aren't as many trees here so he can't be hiding around here." The blonde frowned.

Hinata pulled a water bottle out of her backpack and handed a cup to her sensei.

"Ah, well prepared as always I see." Kakashi commented as she blushed and tried not to spill the water while pouring it to him.

"Yeah, huh?" Naruto gave her a wink which made her blush more. She looked away and handed him two cups. He handed one to Sasuke before taking a sip out of the other one.

Sasuke pulled the now empty cup away from his face and frowned in confusion when he saw that Kakashi's cup was already empty too but his mask was dry.

"Let's just keep our hopes for the other teams high, maybe they found something. The guy could have gone only one way after all." Kakashi handed his empty cup back to Hinata.

"Yeah…" Naruto looked down at his cup… and saw something weird in the reflection of the water. He blinked and looked above him. "GAH!" He screamed throwing the cup on the ground and jumping.

The rest of them quickly looked up and saw a corpse tied to the trunk of the tree.

"What the hell is that?" Sasuke frowned at the disturbing sight.

Hinata peaked out from behind Naruto's back. "Do you think it m-might be o-one of the p-people who went m-missing?" She swallowed and buried her face in his jacket again.

"It's possible." Kakashi replied. "Hinata, check the corpse for traps, then I'll get it down and we'll take it back to town and see if anyone can identify it. Then we'll have to look up from on."

"Your suggestion so you're carrying that thing, cuz I'm definitely not." Naruto said.

Sasuke sighed. "For once… I agree with you."

Back at the town, Asuma looked up at the sky. "The sun is almost down, where are they?"

Both team 8 and team 7 had made it back to town before sunset but they were still waiting for team 7.

"I hope that Kakashi didn't pass his tardiness down onto his genin." Asuma continued still looking up at the sky which was now the same fiery orange as the lit tip of his cigarette.

"Fortunately, I think I did not, but we have a good reason for being late." The voice they were waiting for answered Asuma's question.

The two teams looked at the direction of the voice only to see the jonin carrying a dead body and his three genin lagging behind him with unsettled looks on their faces.

"What in the…?" Kurenai blinked. "Where on Earth did you find it?"

"Not on earth, on a tree!" Naruto said with a nervous laugh and then coughed when Sasuke gave him a look of 'are you kidding me?'

"On a tree?" Shikamaru raised a brow.

"Yeah, it was tied high up on a tree but not on one of the branches." Sasuke explained. "Now that I think about it, there weren't many branches on that tree considering the whole forest is mostly dead."

"How did it get there then?" Choji asked while trying not to look at the corpse as Kakashi was slowly laying him onto the ground.

"Hey, that kid told us he saw him climb the fence." Sasuke continued. "But the whole fence is made with smooth steel and barb wire on top so it's not easy to climb, so it looks like our attacker has good climbing abilities." He concluded while Sakura and Ino fawned over his intelligence.

"If that is true he might be using a jutsu to climb as he appeares to not have any toes." Shino added.

They were interrupted when one of the people called out to them. "Are you all back? Did you find something?"

Naruto gulped and looked up at his sensei who nodded. Naruto then walked up to the large house where the people were gathered. "Um… can I speak to all of the adults, please? But not the kids, ok?"

The man looked at him in confusion before more of the adults started coming out of the building. "Why?" He asked.

Naruto looked around at the people and took a deep breath. "We found a dead body in the forest. We need you to look at it and see if you know who it is. It might be one of the people who went missing…"

The people gasped and groaned before agreeing to step out. They all hesitantly gathered around the corpse and looked at it before one of the women gasped and slowly walked up to it. She collapsed next to the body and shakily pulled out a pocket knife with carvings in it. "Oh, my dear Senshi! Nooo!" She cried gripping the knife while two other people pulled her away from the body.

"It's her husband." One of the two people answered. "He's the first person to have gone missing."

"But he disappeared long before the others." The other person answered.

"We…" The woman sobbed. "We had an argument that night… I thought he had left me…" She wiped the tears away and yelled. "But it was him! The kidnaper! You have to find him!"

"And we will, that's a promise!" Naruto answered fiercely.

"Let's call it a night and go thought the evidence." Asuma suggested. "But first, shall we burry Mr. Senshi?" He looked at the woman who gave him a firm nod.

After the burial it was now pitch black outside and the teams were unwrapping their sleeping bags in the spacious hallway of the building where all of the people and children were in, deciding it is best for their protection. Naruto was sitting outside looking at the moon which was the only thing visible in the dark night. A voice interrupted his thoughts.

"I unwrapped your sleeping bag." Hinata whispered lowering herself to sit next to him but he motioned for her to sit in his lap. "Are you ok?"

"I can't stop thinking about Ginga…" He whispered back.

"Me neither… but we need to have hope… it's sad, but it is the only thing we have at the moment."

"I know…" He looked into her eyes before kissing her lightly. As soon as he broke the kiss he felt a shiver go down his body and a sudden weight was lifted off of him. It felt like his breath, heartbeat and blood pressure were lowered at the same time.

"Man… I just realized I hadn't kissed you all day." He whispered. "It's like a…a…"

"I know… I felt it too…" She interrupted him and embraced him. "Let's go inside."

"I don't think I'd be able to fall asleep." He said as they were getting up.

"You know… every time you say that you end up falling asleep."

"Yeah but this is different."

"I know it's hard but you need your energy." Hinata comforted him.

"She's right about that." Kurenai agreed. "Let's all just try and sleep but keep one eye open."

"How am I supposed to sleep with one eye open?"

"That's not what she meant you idiot." Sasuke shook his head in disbelief before putting his pillow over his face and sighing into it.

In the end, all of them ended up falling asleep but they were woken up at the break of dawn by screams and yells. They scrambled out of their sleeping bags and rushed in the room where others were sleeping.

"What happened?" Asuma asked.

"He came back!"

"But he's gone now!"

"We don't know where he went!"

The people all yelled over each other before a few of them pointed at a man and a woman hugging a crying child. "He almost took Ame!"

"But we got her in time!"

"We don't know how he got in!"

"I punched him in the face! I broke his nose!" Seiun remarked waving his fists around.

"Calm down honey, you might end up hurting someone for real." His mother pulled his hands down.

"But mom, I hit him, I really did! Look!" The boy pointed to the corner of the room where… on the floor… was a nose.

"Oh my Goodness!" The woman yelled before fainting.

"Mom!" Seiun shook her.

"Don't worry, she's ok." Sakura assured him before putting a pillow under the woman's head.

Naruto walked towards the nose, mouth agape. He crouched down next to it examining it before turning towards the boy.

"Well… it sure is broken!"