Ahoy! Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I think it really was the longest chapter so far :B. I'll try and make this one long too, mmkay? I've been out a lot more lately. I've been going to the lake (Lake Erie) every day this week. I live less than a mile away from it (more like… one thousand feet next to it . ) so I've been recently visiting it with a few friends and therefore neglecting my fiction-writing-ness xD. Oh well, it's good for me to get out of my box every once and a while, ne? Hehe.

My goodness o.o this story is a lot more popular than I thought! Now with that thing that tells you how many people read your story (the counter thing) I can see how many people have read certain chapters and who has reviewed this or made it as one of their favorites. Even if you guys don't always review (though it'd be nice if you could at least review one chapter… maybe the last one) I still lurve you all greatly :3.

Wow is this really chapter 21 already? Huh… that seems so weird to me. Well! Guess I better stop talking and start writing xD. Hope you like this chapter!

Review Corner:

Ky0Kichi: Hehe, yeah. I was so tempted to end it there but I figured I could pump out another couple parts of the story for you guys and make it a bit longer ;3.

TheSunshineGirls: Yeppers! I had to get some (at least) shonen-ai in there xD.

Itachi-rin: I would never dream of leaving such a cliff hanger xD, I was tempted to though… you're lucky I felt like making a long(er) chapter, hehe. An innocent Gaara xD oooohhh yeaah. I'm glad you liked that last chapter :D.

OokamiHanyouGurl: Thank you very much! Haha, yay! I have more best friends x3.

Insomiak: (Reviewed chapters 2-8) xD I'm glad to see you're liking this story! I hope you'll continue to like it as the chapters go by . it seems to change quite a bit as you read, ne ;? –lurve-

Puptastic25: What? Of course I didn't rip off Indiana Jones x3 … hehe ; I guess a giant rolling bolder just was the first thing I thought of –shrug-. Thank you for both of your reviews! I'm glad you like the story and I hope you continue to read!

:p you guys rock my hypothetical socks xD.

Recap:

Sakura stepped out from behind the tree and looked down at her fallen enemy.

"That's what you get for underestimating me…" she said sticking out her tongue.

'I'll catch up with you soon… Sasuke-kun… Naruto…'

Good Night My Knight!

Chapter 21: The Belly of the Beast

"Kitsune?" Shukaku gently shook Kitsune's shoulder from his spot on the cold dirt floor.

The area they had been dropped into had been less than comfortable. Shukaku had tried pulling her towards him but only got himself thrown down as well. At least they hadn't gotten separated. As long as they stayed in pairs it would be less of a hold back towards the group. Kitsune hadn't budged since they hit the bottom of the pit. He tried to make sure none of her bones where broken, and from what he could tell, none of them were. He growled slightly; hopefully nothing was broken… after all, she had landed on him. He tried shaking her shoulder once again but got no response out of her. Sighing, he laid back against the wall behind him. He didn't want to move Kitsune incase something was wrong with her but staying here meant risking the enemy finding them when she was unable to fight.

'Oh well…' Shukaku thought rolling his eyes, 'Maybe a few stab wounds will wake her up.'

Shaking his head at his stupid thoughts he picked Kitsune up off the ground and carefully balanced both their weights until he was able to scoot her onto his back and fully stand. Squinting down the dark hallway he began to trudge down the same direction they'd been heading when they were with the others.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

Sakura had reached the palace about five minutes after the… er… commotion, but she still went in without fear. Thinking all the traps had been set off already, or at least deactivated, she walked down the tunnel without worry. She came to the spot that the bolder had fell and looked down the hallway before even considering the other options (down through the hole the others had fallen through? Or up through the 'boulder hole'?). Sighing she kept straight. At least this way she would have an easier time turning back if needed. She walked down the dreary halls for a few minutes before starting to wonder if there was any sort of passage way through the walls that she might have missed.

'That's just what I need… to have missed a stupid secret passage way…' She thought puffing out her cheeks in defiance.

She walked over to the wall to her right and gently placed her ear next to the cold stone that lined the hallway she was in. Listening intently she tried to hear voices or a sort of air passage on the other side. Hearing nothing she sighed and backed away from the wall. Perhaps there wasn't really anything to worry about. Tapping on the stone Sakura began listening for any kind of echo. It seemed like a basic idea as she began to walk further down the tunnel, but it might just work. A few stones later Sakura heard it: a faint echo on the other side of the stone where she had hit. Her face lit up and she leaned in next to the wall as she tapped it again. Sure enough there was another echo.

"Yes." She said stretching out her arm as she prepared to punch through to the other side.

Pulling back her arm she gathered her energy to her fist but before the blow could connect the wall swung out and Sakura went stumbling through.

"Whoa! Wait a minute!"

Before she could get up and run back through to the other side, the wall slammed shut leaving her in the dark on the other side.

'Brilliant…'

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Itachi had traveled about 23 miles before finally reaching Orochimaru's palace. He walked carefully down the old stone steps and approached the entrance with caution. He figured that there mustn't be any traps at the entrance just yet, that wasn't Orochimaru's style. Quickly moving through the small dark space he made his way into the tunnel. It was then that he noticed a hole in the floor and in the ceiling. There were marks in the floor that showed some sort of struggle or fight had happed earlier. Itachi looked further on and seeing nothing but darkness slightly lit by the lights on the walls he looked up. Above him was another hallway, and through the hole beneath him was darkness. He opted for going up… perhaps the above hallway was not meant to be found; and that was exactly why he was going to take it.

xoxoxoxoxoxox

"What do you mean 'We should go back'!" Naruto asked throwing his hands up into the air in aggravation.

Sasuke growled, "Well, genius, do you see anywhere else to go?"

Naruto blinked slowly and turned to face the dead end, "Well… we could blow our way through it you know…"
Sasuke was this-close to punching Naruto's adorable, sexy, cute, pouty face in. He couldn't help but slap his forehead for letting those adjectives slip in. It wasn't his fault the baka looked so cute right now. His hair had been disheveled from the battle that had happened earlier with the running and the bolder and what-not. His face had a few marks of dirt on it and the pout that he had on right now just simply made him look oh-so do-able. Sasuke shook his head free of those thoughts and got back on the thought of arguing with Naruto.

"No, dobe. We're not going to blow a hole through a wall that might not even lead anywhere. Don't you think that Orochimaru wouldn't want a wall that leads to an opening with boulders coming out of it?"

Naruto paused to take in what Sasuke was saying. He looked a little confused before letting out a sigh of frustration and raising both hands to his head to rub his head which only succeeded in messing it up further.

"Fine, bastard. We'll go back. But that's a really far way to walk." He whined, "I mean… you saw how damn far we ran, right?"

"Whatever, baka. The sooner you stop complaining and we start walking the sooner we'll get back and the closer we'll be to killing Orochimaru."

"Che, well if you're done bitching then I guess we can go."

Naruto was just about to start running when he saw Sasuke's eye twitch in aggravation (a clear sign the Uchiha heir was pissed off) when the ground shook again.

"What the! You've got to be kidding me! This can't happen twice! How unoriginal is Orochimaru?" Naruto said grabbing onto Sasuke to regain his balance.

"Quite, dobe. Watch out for anymore traps, let's just start moving."

"Y-Yeah…"

The two began to move along the wall of the cave as carefully as they could so as not to fall to the shaking ground. As the stumbled along Sasuke heard something that sounded strangely like water flowing on the other side of the wall.

"Wait a minute, Naruto."

Naruto looked up to see Sasuke staring at the wall alertly.

"It won't bite you know." Naruto said sarcastically.

"I know that dobe. I hear something… it sounds like running water."

Naruto burst out laughing, "Orochimaru has pluming in this place?"

Sasuke promptly hit Naruto over the head, "Can't you shut up for two seconds?"

Naruto didn't say anything but instead settled for sticking out his tongue. He would have let go of Sasuke's arm and crossed his arms and huffed and made a scene but the ground was shaking a bit more violently now. Why the hell was this happening to them? Before Naruto could mentally complain anymore Sasuke had jumped away from the wall (dragging Naruto with him) and pulled Naruto close.

"Hold on, dobe!" Sasuke warned.

"Nani? What's going on, ba--" SWOOSH! The wall that Sasuke had previously been standing by had given way and a rapid wave of angry water came through the hole.

"Eck!" Naruto found himself burying his face into Sasuke's shoulder trying to hide his face from the currents of the water that were quickly filling up the tunnel.

"Orochimaru you bastard…" Sasuke muttered before beginning to move towards the new 'doorway' that had opened up.

"What are you doing? Sasuke? Why are you going into there?" Naruto asked pointing towards the still slightly rushing water to emphasize his point.

"I'm doing what Orochimaru wants us to do…" Sasuke said picking Naruto up with one arm under his legs and the other around the blonde's shoulders.

"WHAT! Are you stupid? Wait, one; How do you know that leads to Orochimaru and two; If you're so sure it's him then why are you going that way?" Naruto asked as he looked worriedly towards the direction Sasuke was advancing in.

"Didn't we come here to find Orochimaru?"

"Well… yeah… but… we don't need to walk directly towards him!"

"Maybe we aren't."

"YOU'RE JUST GUESSING?"

"Well, idiot, if we walked back to the entrance and picked a way it'd be the same as guessing now wouldn't it? Besides… this way you don't have to walk. So be happy." Sasuke quickly leaned down to silence Naruto by placing a soft kiss on the tip of his nose.

Naruto's mouth had fallen open but he bit down so fast you could hear his teeth click. Throwing his nose in the air he crossed his arms and allowed himself to be carried by Sasuke through the now stomach-high water while muttering something about lots and lots of ramen…

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Tsunade groaned. That was the last time she ever leaned against one of the stupid freaky-turny walls that Orochimaru had installed down here. Goodness only knew what other kind of stupid traps he had lying around. Speaking of which… she scanned the room with her eyes. The area she was in seemed like another normal hallway… nothing new here. She looked over to the lump beside her.

"You ok?" She asked poking its side.

Jiraiya moaned and clutched his side, "I think I broke something."

Tsunade rolled her eyes and stood up from her seat on the chilly ground.

"Let's go you big baby. We need to find the others as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, yeah… I'm moving."

As soon as the both had stood a sudden 'click, click, click,' noise came from further down the hallway. Jiraiya and Tsunade listened for a minute before Jiraiya spoke up.

"Err… ladies first."

She rolled her eyes, "How brave."

Jiraiya let out a nervous laugh and a silly grin as Tsunade began to lead the way. As they advanced down the hallway the clicking sound grew louder and louder (obviously). When they reached what they thought was the exact spot of where the clicking was coming from it suddenly stopped (A/N: hey! It's like 'Jumanji'! Good movie... ok, shutting up).

"Well that's a little weird." Tsunade said looking around at the walls trying to find something that may have caused the clicking sound.

"I wouldn't touch any of those stupid walls again." Jiraiya warned.

"Yeah I know. But where was that stupid noise coming from then?" Tsunade asked turning around to face Jiraiya with her hands on her hips.

"Maybe it was those guys?" Jiraiya said pointing back behind Tsunade.

She quickly turned around to come face to face with some sort of skeleton warrior clad in tattered brown leather holding a sword and shield.

"GAH!" Tsunade cried before punching a hole through the skeleton's skull.

Jiraiya kicked and punched holes in the other two before looking down to see the three skeletons that lay motionless on the ground.

"What the hell are those things?" Tsunade asked catching her breath from the scare she'd only just had.

"I don't know… I don't know if I want to know either…"

"Yeah… let's just keep walking and hope we don't see anymore."

"Good idea."

As the two continued down the hall they failed to see the three piles of bones join to make three separate forms once again. The three skeleton warriors turned to face the two Sennin as they walked and stalked up behind them with their swords ready to strike. As their blades fell Jiraiya and Tsunade quickly turned and kicked the swords out of their hands.

"These guys don't give up do they?" Jiraiya said kicking off the skull of the skeleton that already had a hole through its skull thanks to Tsunade.

"What the hell is driving these things?"

Jiraiya shrugged as the last one went down, "Beats me."

"Argh! What the hell." Tsunade exclaimed as they began to assemble once again.

"Forget it! Let's just keep moving." Jiraiya reached out and grabbed Tsunade's wrist before she could begin to stomp on the moving bones and took off in the direction they'd been headed.

This was just getting weirder and weirder.

End of Chapter 21

:D Sort of long-ish again (for me at least). I just wanted to say that this will probably be the last chapter for the next week at least. Heading out to Georgia on Friday night (which I guess Friday will be today in 30 minutes xD) for a week and won't be back until next Monday. So… yeah. Just a warning there ;3. Thank you again to everyone reading! I'm thinking about doing some sort of picture thing if I get 300 or more reviews (but that's only before the last chapter… yeah…). SO PLEASE REVIEW! Oui. Ok. I'm done –passes out-.

Anukis