Setsuko at Celia

Bensha stood on a branch watching the sky.

"Servant of Snake," Kabuto glared up at her. She had started calling him that. "Is the snake powerful?"

"Of course. He is one of the-"

"Quiet." She snapped. "I did not ask for his tales. I only asked his strength. You humans must always waste time explaining things. You would explain the color of the sky if you could."

"Actually, the reason why the sky blue is-" He was cut off as four thin needles landed millimeters away from his feet. Bensha had her arm extended toward him as she stared up at the sky.

"I do not care for the way humans explain the sky. Demons do not have to fret about such a useless knowledge. The sky is blue. That is all we need to know." She slowly turned her head to look at him. "But humans do not know when to leave things alone. In order to make up for what they cannot grasp, they fill their heads with empty knowledge. It is a disgrace to think that I am now confined to the boundaries of weak filth. I wait for the moment when the wind grants me my full power once more. I could make myself a suitable body, even if I am a mere spirit wandering the skies. I will rise again and curse humans. The demons will once more rule. And I will be god king. When that day happens, I will tear the snake apart for summoning me. It was not what the wind wanted." Bensha held her hands out in front of her. "These emotions that belong to Setsuko, I want them gone. If the snake cannot take them, I will kill him." Kabuto stared at Bensha before bowing.

"Gomen, I will take your request to Orochimaru-sama." Bensha looked back to the sky as Kabuto disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto dodged a kick from Kakashi. Kakashi spun around and landed a punch on Naruto, causing him to fall down. Sakura charged him with a fist ready. She punched at him but he blocked it with his forearm. He quickly grabbed her arm and threw her across the field. Sasuke ran in with his hands moving to side chop him. Kakashi jumped over Sasuke and kicked him from behind, sending the boy into the trees.

"Good. You teamwork has improved along with many other skills. The Celia Mountain aren't far from here." Kakashi smiled. "Is team 28 ready, Janghoon?" Janghoon appeared in a whirl of leaves.

"Hai. Seung and Riki went to check with the other sensei. They should be here any minute now." The second his words died there was movement. Everyone else was in the clearing.

"Kakashi-san, how much longer do we have to go?" Seung asked. Kakashi looked up at the sky.

"I'd say . . . that we have five or so more hours till is shows." Gai sent Kakashi a confused look.

"What are you talking about?"

"The Celia Mountains only show themselves at dusk. We're in the right place, but the mountains will be hidden until dusk. Often, many ninja end up walking right around it, even if they knew the exact place. When it's dusk, then it appears and we should be able to get to the mountain without problem. We should rest until then."

A slender hand reached out and cut a small daisy from the grass with a kunai. Soft white hair was in a loose braid that stood out against her soft creamy skin. Dark violet eyes skimmed over the grass in search of flowers. A plain red brown sleeveless sun dress was a size to big and draped down on the ground as she stood to her full height. A violet ribbon tied around her stomach kept the dress from falling off easily. She turned her flushed face towards the other human in the field. A young girl, no older than 13, sat, meditating. She wore a dark gray tank top that was slightly baggy tucked into black short shorts. A red heavy jacket that only went down to her ribs had the sleeves pushed up to a few centimeters below her elbow. A black leather French brette (sp?) with a leather bill was some-what sideways and pulled down so her eyes was blocked from the side at a certain angle. She wore black fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back. Her dirty blonde hair was in braided pigtails on either side of her head. They were piled on the ground and rested close to her black combat boots. She opened her dark green eyes. The girl stood up, revealing her pigtails to reach her knees.

"Robin, would you like me to make you a flower hat?" The girl, Robin, stared at her before smiling. Her skin was alittle pale and her upper lip was painted black. The black didn't seem to smear onto her bottom lip.

"Iie. When Tenshi comes, she'll want one. Maybe you could make her one."

"Hai. That's a good idea." Robin laughed.

"Thank you." The woman picked a few more flowers as Robin stared into the distance. '. . . a group waiting and . . . three coming here . . . should be here by nightfall . . .' Robin smirked.

"Now we get to see some real action." She muttered to herself. She sat back down next to her naginata.

Gaara landed on a tree branch and waited for his two siblings to catch up with him. The demon had been screaming at him. Screaming something about a Bensha and death. He didn't know why he had been pulled this way. He just suddenly had to go somewhere. And somehow, he was being pulled in this direction. His sister landed close to him while his brother landed in another tree. It had always been that way. His sister would try to get as close as she could while his brother distanced himself. Not that it matter. Gaara took off once more when his siblings caught their breath.

Kakashi stood in a tree, waiting for the sun to set.

"What do you need?" He asked without turning. He knew who it was already.

"You . . . you really do love Setsuko-chan, don't you?" Kakashi turned to Naruto. The fox vessel was sitting next to him on the branch, letting his legs swing beneath him.

"Hai. Very much. Naruto, I would never hurt her. Don't you know this?" Naruto shrugged as he stared at the ground.

"I dunno. Setsuko-chan . . . she was very hard to tell. After all she went through . . . I don't know if she was immune to that kind of pain or not. I saw her get very sad sometimes but . . . I never saw her cry. I know she felt the same way but . . . she's shy like that." Kakashi sat down.

"Why . . . why don't talk this all over with Setsuko when she comes back." Naruto nodded.

"That would be nice." Naruto smiled to himself. "When she was around . . . the glares never hurt so much. Because she understood and I wasn't alone."

"Naruto, you were never alone." Naruto nodded.

"Hai, I know. But that's not what I meant. I meant like Gaara and Setsuko. Gaara knew all along and he became so cold it didn't matter to him. Setsuko though, she understood better than him." Kakashi and Naruto waited in silence for dusk.

No one could believe it. Dusk. Mountaina appeared only a second after dusk. Kakashi stared at the mountain in front of him. He had been there before, but it was still amazing. There was snow at the tops. Green covered a large part of the mountains and a few rivers flowed down from them. There were several mountains but the biggest overpowered the others.

"Come on." Was all Kakashi needed to whisper before the shinobi became blurs as they raced to and up the mountains. Finally, after what seemed like a hour, they stopped. A woman with white hair had her back turned to them. She was picking flowers. After a few minutes she looked up and turned to them.

"Setsuko." Seung whispered in shock. Janghoon moved in front of Seung. Kakashi reached back into his pouch.

"No." He saw the kunai in her hand as she turned to them. She raised her hand up.

"Bensha must be using henge." Sakura muttered an instant before Kakashi threw a kunai at her. Setsuko stared at the group as the kunai whizzed towards her head.

Naginata-Japanese polearm similar to a halberd

Halberd-ancient long-handled weapon, which the head had a point and several long, sharp edges, curved or straight, and sometimes additional points. The heads were sometimes of very elaborate form.