When team 7 finally arrived back to the town, the other were waiting for them and we in shock when they made out a figure of a young girl in Kakashi's arms. One of the people who was sitting on the porch of the main building smoking a cigarette choked on the smoke at the sight in front of him, threw the cigarette onto the ground and ran inside and yelled at the others.
"They're back! They found Ginga!"
Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and ran out of the building. They stopped a few feet away from Kakashi and went silent.
"Is she…?" Her father shook with tears in his eyes.
"Alive." Kakashi gave them his one eyed smile. "She'll be alright." He handed her to his father and the people gathered around them and cheered in joy.
While they hugged and kissed the sleeping girl, Kurenai updated team 7 on their discoveries. As soon as they finished talking, the people drew their attention with a few waves.
"Her wound… it's bleeding." Her father pointed towards the red stained bandage around her leg.
"I've got it." Sakura said and kneeled next to the girl. Taking the bandages off carefully, she placed her hands above the wound and a green glow surrounded the area slowly healing up the wound.
"Woah…" Naruto blinked in awe.
"Medical ninjutsu? I'm guessing this is Tsunade's work?" Kakashi commented turning towards Kurenai who smiled and nodded.
"So you can heal wounds? That's awesome." Naruto complimented her and her cheeks got a tad bit rosy.
Hinata watched the last drop of blood disappear as the wound healed. Naruto noticed her saddened expression and walked up to her. "What's wrong?" he whispered.
"Did I not stitch it well?" She whispered back.
"You did, it's just a big wound, it happens." He rubbed her arm soothingly. She nodded.
"There we go, all done." Sakura said wiping off the remaining blood with the bandage.
"Thank you, thank you so much!" Ginga's mother cried.
"Oh, no need to thank me." Sakura blushed.
"Good work, Sakura." A familiar voice praised her making her blush intensify. She turned towards the voice and stammered. "I-it's nothing, Sasuke."
Naruto resisted a giggle and nudged Hinata who hid her smile behind her small fist.
Ino looked at the two and frowned in envy before looking away.
"Now…" Asuma spoke up. "Let's wait for her to wake up. We can finally find out who's behind this."
"Whoever it is, they are smart." Sakura commented.
"How do you know? They couldn't even stick their nose on properly!" Naruto replied.
Sakura sighed before she explained. "I saw the wound up close. The nerves were cut with surgical precision so they could be transplanted. Whoever did this must have some medical history."
"Wait…" one of the men interjected. "One of the people who is still missing… Kusuri… he was our best doctor."
"Do you think that the kidnapper might be holding him hostage and making him do this?" Kiba asked.
"That's a possibility." Shino added. "After all, there are still three people to be found."
"Hold up a minute…" Naruto thought.
"What is it?" Shikamaru asked.
"If he's a hostage… and this guy is coming here, that means he left him alone right? Why didn't he try and escape? I mean, if the guy had help and they were both missing limbs, he should have been able to escape, right?"
"The corpses we found were pretty old so if they needed that many limbs they would have taken more body parts. And if there were more of them there would be more victims and more sightings. I think that we are dealing with only one person." Asuma concluded.
Naruto stared into space and muttered. "He's not held hostage…"
"What?" Hinata blinked.
Naruto looked at the others. "I was thinking about the nose… it didn't look like it was cut by someone who didn't know what they were doin', y' know."
Hinata gasped suddenly. "Oh my Goodness, you are right!"
"About what? What are you two going on about?" Kiba raised a brow and Akamaru let out a confused bark.
"When did Kusuri go missing exactly?" Hinata asked the people.
"Uhhh… After Senshi and Mukimei…" One of the men answered.
"Their missing body parts were expertly removed even thought Kusuri went missing after them. But if the kidnapper was missing parts how did he get around? And where did he get the equipment to remove the flesh so precisely?" Hinata added. "Can you verify Kusuri's whereabouts at the times when Senshi and Mukimei went missing?"
The people shook their heads.
"On second thought… his surgical supplies and some of his stuff were gone too." A woman replied. "I'm a nurse that worked with him, he was attached to his equipment so I figured that it was in his house."
"Did you check the house?" Shikamaru asked her.
"Yes, they weren't there."
"He's helping the guy!" Naruto exclaimed.
"It is possible…" Kurenai looked around at the people. "But you don't seem shocked about it."
"Well…" One of the teenagers responded. "He wasn't very friendly or social. I came to him after I fell and broke my arm and he fixed it and then made fun of me for falling."
"He seemed kind of angry all the time." Another teenager added.
"He was kind of creepy." Seiun added. "He has scary stuff in jars in his house. Yuck!"
"Who are his parents?" Asuma asked.
"We don't know." The man responded. "He showed up out of nowhere one day, said he was lost and asked for a place to sleep and food in exchange for medical services. We needed a doctor so we accepted him. He's been living here for thirteen years."
"So if it is true that he's assisting the kidnapper, there are two missing people remaining. Since the others were not severely damaged, I'm guessing that the last two will be quite unsightly." Shino deduced.
"The last two went missing… after Kusuri…" The nurse added.
"Ku…suri…" A frail voice spoke up.
"Ginga! She's awake!" Her father cried.
"Mom… dad?"
"We're here sweetie, you're fine!" Her mother brushed her hair affectionately.
"Dr. Kusuri… I saw him… he gave me a weird flower…" She mumbled.
The genin and jonin looked at each other and frowned collectively.
"Did you see anyone else, honey?" Ino bent down and sweetly asked her.
"No… just Dr. Kusuri… and then I feel asleep…" Ginga answered before yawning.
"So it's true…" Sasuke remarked.
"That bastard!" Naruto's fists clenched. "To be welcomed into this town and then murder its people! I swear, when I find this jerk I'll cut him into chunks and give him a taste of his own medicine!"
"And I'll help." Kiba declared.
"Count me in." Shikamaru added.
"As much as I would like revenge myself, we need to find out why he did it." Kakashi said.
"Who cares? Look at what he's done to these people!" Naruto raged.
"We don't know if he's doing it willingly or not." Kurenai added. "Besides, we have two more people to find so I suggest that we get going."
That seemed to calm Naruto down a bit but not completely. Hinata rubbed his arm. "Please, we need to focus on our objective."
He looked in her eyes for a few seconds and let their lavender glimmer calm him before he nodded and exhaled a deep breath he didn't even know he was holding in.
"Ok. Let's get going." Asuma announced. "Do not let anyone walk around alone for a second until we get back." He told the people who just nodded in agreement.
They exited the town gates once again and looked into the woods.
"I think we shouldn't separate this time." Kurenai announced.
"Why not? We cover more ground like that." Ino asked.
Kurenai sighed. "I hate to say it but… the two remaining people can't still be alive… we need to find Kusuri and the guy he's been stitching together before more people go missing."
The others stayed silent as they thought about the circumstances. It was hard to accept the most likely scenario that the two people are probably dead by now but they had to put on a brave face and continue with the mission. They moved up the forest a bit spread out but still near each other. They scanned the surroundings for hours and went deeper into the eerie trees than before. Eventually, they all stopped in a clearing at the very back of the forest. A soft carpet of delicate grass and small flowers covered the field which was a clear sign that they were not in the woods anymore and have entered another land's territory.
"Ok, looks like we have officially searched the entire forest." Asuma declared. "The land next to us is covered in traps and guards so they can't be over there. We have nowhere else to go."
"I haven't smelled a thing since we started." Kiba said annoyed.
Sasuke walked towards the jonin. "There is one place we haven't searched."
"Where?" Kurenai asked.
"Before we found Ginga, Naruto's clone and I stumbled across this ravine. It's pitch black and way too deep so we didn't even try to look inside." Sasuke replied.
Naruto gulped. "No way am I going down there!"
"It seems to be our last option so lead the way." Kakashi said.
"Hn." Sasuke nodded and motioned for them to follow. As they were pushing branches out of their way Shikamaru noticed that Naruto was slacking off and Hinata was walking slowly in front of him as to try and give him some courage.
"Is it that bad?" Shikamaru asked him knowing exactly why the blonde was in no hurry.
"Dude, there's no freaking oxygen down there!" Naruto whined.
Hinata stifled a giggle while Shikamaru laughed.
"Scaredy cat." Sasuke remarked.
"If you had seen the look on your face when you threw that rock in there and didn't hear it land you wouldn't have said that!" Naruto defended himself. "On top of that, how would a limbless freak get down there anyway?"
"They probably have a way if it's their hideout." Sakura added.
"Well, we'll find out soon, we're almost there." Sasuke announced.
"Yeah, and we'll throw you in first!" Naruto barked.
Sasuke just rolled his eyes and sped up. Finally, after scrimmaging with a bunch of thick bushes they noticed that the light around them was minimal and that he air had gotten chillier. Sasuke moved a large collapsed branch in front of him to reveal the dark ravine. He noticed that it was not the part that he and the clone came upon. He then turned towards Hinata. "Can you tell how deep it is?"
She nodded and walked towards it activating her byakugan. "I am estimating around 90 feet. Oddly, there seems to be vegetation down there."
"Do you see any way to get down?" Asuma asked.
Hinata scanned around before her eyes stopped on a thick tree on their right. "This tree is hollow and the trunk leads all the way to the bottom. That's why the tree is so low, it is buried into the ground. There are grooves inside, as if someone used it as a ladder."
"Maybe they did." Sasuke said and walked towards the tree before suddenly stopping and growling.
"What is it?" Sakura asked.
"A skeleton… tied to the tree." Sasuke answered. "The bones of the arms and legs are completely scratched up."
"That probably happened while Kusuri was removing the flesh and muscle from the limbs to put them onto the kidnapper's body." Shino concluded.
The girls shivered in disgust.
"Let's lower ourselves down and see if there is something there. If not, we will bring the bones back to town on our way out." Kakshi suggested.
Naruto sighed and followed. "One more body to go."
They lowered themselves through the trunk one by one, each one had to face the skeleton on their way in. Some looked away as to not face it while others stopped for a few seconds and looked at it sadly. Once they were all at the bottom they were surprised to see that the visibility seemed to have increased.
"It seems that these crystals are producing the light." Shino pointed at the glowing minerals which were dispersed all over the walls of the ravine.
Choji looked at the dark spongy moss covering the ground and the small webbed flowers growing out of it. "What are these? How can they grow without sunlight?"
"Those are Shinen flowers." Ino replied. "They're pretty rare… and poisonous."
Choji flinched away from the moss. "I don't like it down here at all."
"No shit." Naruto grumbled.
They cautiously walked down the ravine. It was completely silent except for the sound of water trickling out of the walls. That is why the sudden rustling sound startled them all as they swiftly pulled out a kunai and held their breath waiting for something to come.
"Guys…" Kiba whispered. "I smell that flower…"
"From where?" Kurenai asked whispering.
"Up ahead…" Kiba answered even quieter.
"Let's move…" Asuma said. "Carefully."
They walked for a few minutes before they heard the sound again. But this time it was obvious where it was coming from… there was a high roof made of cloth, leaves and branches above them. There was trash everywhere and a pile or crates stacked to form a wall. The rustling was coming from behind them.
"Hinata." Kakashi said.
"No…"
He blinked in surprise and looked at the girl. "What?"
"I c-cannot see b-behind them… they are c-covered in privacy protection seals." Hinata answered shakily.
"Wait, are these the crates from the cave we found the baby in?" Naruto whispered.
"Yes." Hinata replied. "I'm positive."
"Your whisper is so cute."
"N-not n-now, Naruto." She blushed.
"Sorry, I'm really nervous…" He whispered back.
"Na-ru-to…" A sudden slow, raspy whisper was heard.
"W-what the hell was that?!" Naruto freaked.
"Shhh!" Sasuke shushed him.
"Na-ru-to…"
"Did you guys hear that?" He freaked again.
"Na-ru-to…"
"Again?! Who's there?! Show yourself!"
"Na… nine… tails…"
Naruto froze instantly… and so did the jonin. Hinata looked at her terrified boyfriend and saw a drop of sweat on his cheek. They made eye contact and he whispered. "He knows… how does he…?"
"Na-ru-to… U-zu-ma-ki…"
"How does he know your name?" Sasuke asked looking around. Naruto didn't answer, he just stood there in shock. "How does he know your name?" Sasuke repeated louder.
The three jonin moved closer to Naruto not knowing what's to come. Kakashi looked at his student having never seen him this frightened. He then looked at Hinata who also moved closer to the blonde and slowly slid her fingers around his shaking fist.
"How curious…" The voice seemed to be getting closer. "I thought… that this name… I would see… on a tombstone…"
"What?" Kiba glanced towards Naruto and frowned.
Suddenly, a figure slowly approached them from behind the crates. With one swift move of his arm the crates that were in his way were sharply split down the middle with a fine blade of chakra. His white filthy robe draped over the moss as he approached and directed his gaze towards the blonde.
"However… I am sure… I will be seeing it on one… very soon…"