Baka: I'm back! I'm back! Oh joyous day! Oh yeah, and for all my excuses,
I'm not gonna bore you now, I'll bore you at the end. That is where the
majority of the stuff you usually see at the beginning of my stories will
be from now on.
Inner Baka: And trust me, she has a decent excuse. Now *pulls out whip* let's get crackin'! *cracks whip*
Baka: EEEEP!
................
Disclaimer: Baka does NOT own Naruto. She barely owns anything Naruto legally. *ahem* I mean, everything she has is legal. Right.
.....................
Naruto opened his eyes and sat up. The air cooled a bit, and the sun was getting lower in the sky. He spotted Sakura sitting next to a tree mixing things together - which was not odd, considering she has medical knowledge.
"Hey, Sakura. How long have I been out?" he inquired, making the girl jump.
She smiled at him and got up. After picking up some of her things, she walked up to him and sat down. "Well, I'd say about two hours. It's around 8 o'clock now."
"What?!" He exclaimed, "God damn it! Think of the time we wasted!"
"Naruto, it's ok, really. All we can do is hurry tomorrow. Anyways, I'm making a medicine to balance you out. Sasuke said you were kind of jumpy." She picked up a small vial with a clear liquid in it. "I'm almost done it. After you take a sip, the ingredients will go into your system and you should calm down and concentrate."
Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Thanks." He then began to look around, "Hey, where are Sasuke and that guy anyways?"
Sakura sighed wearily, "Well, Ame-san said he heard water, so he went to go find the source and bring some back. And Sasuke went to get fire wood."
Naruto nodded. "I see. Are we camping here tonight? I mean, I can continue going. I'm fine, really." However, he was not fine; his senses were still on the fritz. He could still smell the animals, and the wild feeling inside of him did not go away. He smelled a wolf nearby. "Ever eat wolf?"
Sakura blinked, "No, why?"
"Well, we didn't expect this to happen, and we are low on food. There is a wolf nearby, want me to kill it?" His mouth began to water. The thought of killing the wolf and just tearing into the flesh with his teeth - *What am I thinking? I'm not a wild animal!*
"Uh, no, it's ok. Messing with wolves can be dangerous." Then she paused, "Wait, how do you know there is a-"
Naruto cut her off by getting up with a wild look in his eyes. *What are you doing?* His body was out of his control. He felt a strange power, something similar, yet different from the Kyuubi presence; something more mundane.
Sakura stood up beside him, "Naruto? Naruto, what's wrong?"
He grinned at her, and then dashed off into the woods, following the scent of the wolf. He felt his body move differently, he was moving quickly, and soundlessly weaving around trees. He started running on all four's. He stopped suddenly and listened.
"I know you're out there." He whispered. The scent was coming from behind a bush about ten feet away. Naruto crouched and waited until his prey moved. He was reminded of how he used to stalk Sasuke. Except this was different, with Sasuke he was just playing. However, right now, it was real. He was hunting.
He heard a gentle crunching of leaves behind him. He felt someone there. He waited until the person came closer. The scent he was picking up was familiar, but his body continued to refuse to make logical decisions. The presence was now about three feet away, and he figured it was time. He whipped around and pounced.
...................
Konohamaru stretched; glad to be free of his cell. "Ah, fresh air!"
The man beside him smiled, "Yeah. Ah, sorry for locking you up like that. I mean, it really isn't necessary. All I gotta do is keep an eye on you."
"Erm, Kyou-...." Konohamaru paused, unsure of what title to call his prison-master.
Kyou chuckled, "Just Kyou is fine. We aren't going to be in each others company for much longer."
The young boy chuckled nervously, "Yeah, well, Kyou, why are you being so nice? I mean, aren't you supposed to keep me locked up, not feed me, get your lackeys to beat me, and so on?"
Kyou laughed at how naïve the boy was, "Listen, I could harm you, but I'd rather not do anything to anger your little buddies any more than they already would be."
Konohamaru frowned, "Is that so? What makes you think that not being angry makes them weaker?"
Kyou chuckled, "Weaker? I already know what they are capable of. Yes, they are very strong when they are neutral, but when they are angry, especially a certain boy, they get even worse." He stopped walking and looked to the ground, "But that isn't the only reason why, boy. And I don't wish to share anymore with you."
Konohamaru sat on the ground and stared ahead. "He'll kill you."
The older man looked up at the boy, "Who?"
"Naruto." He turned around and smirked at the man, "He's the one who's coming, right?"
Kyou ran a hand through his dark hair and breathed out sharply. "Yeah. And I am aware how he's going to feel, and what he's going to do. Or try to do, depending on whether my plan works or not."
The boy smiled, "You aren't like most adversaries, you know that?" he chuckled at the man's puzzled expression, "You don't head out into battle blinded by arrogance."
The man smiled, "A mans confidence can be a double edged sword, boy. If used improperly you can do yourself in." he sat beside the boy, "If I underestimate the enemy, I'll only be troubled in the end. But, if I analyze the situation, and deduct from that, I can know my enemy."
Konohamaru blinked, "So what have you figured out so far?"
"Well, you are Sarutobi Konohamaru. Grandson of the late third Hokage. Surely, they don't want anything bad to happen to you. And considering my agents in Konoha arranged the whole thing, Tsunade sent out three skilled ninja. I already know who one is, for sure. I can guess the other two easily. Uzumaki, Uchiha, and Haruno. I already knew Uzumaki would be sent; I set this up especially for him. But if my agents did their job properly, which I am hoping they did, the other two should be correct."
"So, you set it all up just to get Naruto here." Konohamaru stated, "Why do you want him? And why didn't you just kidnap him?"
"Well, it's a long story, boy." He sighed and brought his knees up, "And I do not wish to tell you. Let's just say he's strong, probably stronger than me."
...................
"Ouch! Sakura! Can you be gentler?!" Sasuke yelped.
Sakura sighed, "If you keep on squirming, it'll only hurt more!"
Naruto paced beside them, he glanced at Sasuke. Sakura was bandaging Sasuke's shoulder. But even now, the blood was seeping through. He felt a pang in his chest and still tasted the blood in his mouth.
............... Flashback ................
*Here wolfie, I know you're there.* I stepped forward towards the bush I felt the wolf hiding behind. I felt my ears perk at a sound behind me. Foot steps. I wondered who it was. The presence came closer. And before I could stop myself, I turned around and lunged at the thing.
"Naruto!" a familiar voice said, rather surprised. I knew who it was, Sasuke. But I still could not stop myself. Next thing I knew he was yelling in pain, cursing at me, tearing at my head. Trying to...
Trying to detach my jaws from his shoulder. But I held on tighter and bit down harder. The taste of his blood consuming my mouth.
....It was delicious.
But after some struggling and fighting, someone else came around and managed to get me off him. Everything went black.
..............
Naruto felt sick to the stomach, "What's wrong with me?" he mumbled more to himself than the others.
But Sasuke responded to his mutterings, "I dunno, you tell me. Why the hell did you bite me?"
The blond boy felt tears in his eyes and shook his head. He sat on a rock and dug around his pockets. He felt something glass and pulled it out. The vial. *Oh, right. Maybe it WILL do something.* He pulled the cork off the top and drank it.
"Naruto?" Sakura said softly, "What was that you just drank?"
Naruto blinked then chucked, "Are you really that forgetful, Sakura? It's the medication you made for me."
Sakura looked completely puzzled, "Medication? I didn't make anything for you."
"What are you talking about? You were making it while I was unconscious earlier. You know, when Sasuke and Amenochi were gone."
"What? Sasuke and I left, Amenochi stayed and watched you." She frowned and was silent as she finished working on Sasuke's shoulder.
"Thanks Sakura." Sasuke frowned and pulled his shirt back on. "So you say someone that looked like Sakura gave you that? Where was Amenochi?"
Naruto looked around, "I dunno. He wasn't here."
Coincidently, the man came out of the woods with a canteen. "I got some more water. Oh, Naruto. You're up. Heh, you are quite the fighter. I had a hard time getting you off of Sasuke."
Naruto looked down, "I-I'm sorry..."
Sasuke sighed and smacked Naruto across the head, "There. There's your punishment, forget about it." He paced up to Amenochi, "Where were you before that? You were supposed to be watching him! And now he just drank something that someone gave to him while you were gone!"
The man blinked, "I was only gone for a couple of minutes. I had to take a piss. It's impossible that someone could have come here."
Sasuke rubbed his temples as if feigning off a headache. "A piss? Couldn't you have waited any longer? At least till one of us came back?"
The man frowned, "But I did. Sakura came back. When I got back, Naruto was running off and I told her to stay here while I went and got him."
Sakura stood up, "Someone must have came here disguised as me." She looked at Naruto, "Naruto, you are a good enough ninja to...Naruto?"
Naruto was sitting there, his eyes were glazed over and his mouth was hanging open. Closer inspection showed that he was perspiring and his breathing was getting erratic.
"Naruto?" the girl went up and laid him down; she took off his shirt and folded it, resting it under his head like a pillow. "Fuck, this is turning out bad. I wonder what he drank."
Sasuke decided to finish off what Sakura was saying, "Naruto is a good enough ninja to see though all henge jutsu's. And you were fooled by the person too."
The man thought for a moment. "This seems like a thing he'd do. But what was in the vial?" he walked over and picked up the little bottle and smelled it. "Well, that was completely useless. No scent."
"Here" Sakura held out her hand, "Maybe you aren't trained to smell such things." After receiving the bottle, she sniffed it. "Hm..." She sniffed it again. "It definatly has medical ingredients." She ran her finger over the rim then licked her finger, "Oh god, strong."
"How could you smell anything?" the man pondered, "I mean, it has no scent."
She smiled, "It's not the scent. It's the fumes." She dug around her bag and pulled out a notebook. She began to write in it.
He nodded. "Do you know what it is?" He walked around behind her and looked over her shoulder to what she was writing.
"No, I don't. Sasuke, can you get a cloth and wet it?" she wrote some more and mumbled some of the things she was writing, "Perspiring, dazed, erratic breathing." she continued listing off symptoms.
"What are you doing?" the man asked her.
She paused for a moment, "Writing down his symptoms. After that I'm going to write down what I can pick up from that vial."
"Kay, Sakura. I got the damp cloth. Now what?" Sasuke said while holding the cloth.
"Can you wipe the sweat off his face? After that, rest it on his forehead." She was back at writing, she did not seem to miss a beat while instructing him.
"O-okay." He mumbled and kneeled next to Naruto. He gingerly rested the cloth against his friends' cheek. He wiped the cloth over his cheek and over his forehead.
Sakura pulled a book out of her bag and began to look through it. After several minutes, she sighed loudly. "I wish he'd snap out of it.I mean I need to know more." She looked over at Sasuke. He was lying down next to Naruto, his hand on his shoulder. She noticed his breathing was shallow and even. A smile spread across her face. "Sweet dreams."
Amenochi kneeled next to her, "What do you need to know?"
She sighed, "Hm, like, how he feels, and so on. There are several things that are matching what I noticed, but it's how he feels that can narrow it down." She paused and thought for a moment. "Tell me more about.this guy you continually mention. What kind of methods dos he use?"
The man sat down and leaned his back against a rock. "Oh, where should I start?" He sighed and thought for a moment. "Well, during the couple of years that I have known of him, I've seen and heard of things that he's done." He paused and seemed to be searching for words. "He's into breaking people down before getting a hold of them. He also sometimes gets his lackeys to spy, or brainwash people."
She looked up, "Brainwash? How?"
"Oh, I don't know. I've never actually seen anyone brainwashing people. That was just a rumor. But it's one we should be weary of." He looked over at the semi-unconscious boy.
She looked over some pages in the book. "Does anyone in the group have any mind-control jutsu's, or anything like one?"
He looked at her and thought, "I'm not completely sure, but the leader has some type of jutsu that influences the mind."
"The leader? Can you please tell me his name?" Sakura said while reading the pages some more. "I think I might have figured something out."
"Oh, his name is..." he paused yet again, "Shinzuino. Shinzuino Kyou."
Sakura's head snapped up, "Did you say Shinzuino?"
He blinked at her, "Uhm, yeah. Shinzuino."
"Oh god, what have we gotten our selves into?" she placed her head in her hands.
The man looked puzzled, "What, you've heard of him?"
She sighed then nodded, "Yes. I have. How can I forget such a thing?" She placed a leaf on the book then closed it, saving her spot. She straightened up and sighed once again, "When we were learning about history back at the academy, we learned all about major clans and such. And we learned not only of the Fire Country, but from all the countries and hidden villages.
But how can one forget a history as gruesome as that of the Shinzuino family. It makes me wonder if Konohamaru is even alive..."
...................
Baka: Chapter FINISHED!
Inner Baka: Odd place to end?
Baka: There is a reason. ^_^ Next chapter: history of the Shinzuino family!
IB: Ya know what? This is turning out like the show. "Big thing happens, group gets together, traveling along/working away, stuff happens, suspense builds, a whole episode dedicated to the history of a new character/bad guy (sometimes we're lucky and get 2 or 3 episodes! -.-') characters continue on adventure, meet up with bad guy, inner emotional tragedy (or something else just as fun), fight fight fight, and.ending unknown? Naw, the ending is always known. Ha!
Baka: Yeah. However, trust me; the whole chapter is not going to be the history, heh.
IB: Did you not say you were going to make up excuses now?
Baka: Oh yeah! I forgot. *clears throat*
Ok everyone! As for why this took so long.
I got sick. I was off school for two whole weeks. My brain was not creative. That was not fun. Then, I was swamped with homework. Then, I got sick again. This time it was a sinus and throat infection. This was around mid December, right before Christmas break. I actually had to miss two days of school in the last week. Man that was so un-fun. Now, during Christmas break.I was still sick. Sickness = no ideas! Oh yeah, I forgot, like, the Tuesday of the week before Christmas holidays, my computer DIED! Now, if that does not suck, get this. The problem was that my POWER SUPPLY died, and it took the MOTHERBOARD with it. Therefore, I had to get a new motherboard and new power supply. Moreover, because my new motherboard was not compatible with some of the old things, I had to get new things. In addition, you know what else? I lost all my files. *smiles* including my documents. Like my pictures and STORIES! Fuck. And right now, this very moment, I am still sick, but recovering happily. I have been sick for 3 weeks. *nods*
IB: Yes, Baka was having a stupid time. But hey, she is back, and updates will be more common. :D
To all people who commented last chapter: Hi! I know you were waiting for the next chapter, unless you were all turned off for whatever reason. (I will kill you if you say there was gay porn in my story again. There IS NO PORN. Jeez, so far, nothing has happened and they ARE NOT TOGETHER...............yet...)
So, anyways, I'll be seeing you next chapter!
Next chapter of "After Innocence":
Sakura tells Amenochi the story of the adversaries past. The story is both violent and gruesome. It will most certainly be interesting.
Also, what just happened to Naruto? Sakura explains all in the next chapter of "After Innocence: Life after childhood".
Inner Baka: And trust me, she has a decent excuse. Now *pulls out whip* let's get crackin'! *cracks whip*
Baka: EEEEP!
................
Disclaimer: Baka does NOT own Naruto. She barely owns anything Naruto legally. *ahem* I mean, everything she has is legal. Right.
.....................
Naruto opened his eyes and sat up. The air cooled a bit, and the sun was getting lower in the sky. He spotted Sakura sitting next to a tree mixing things together - which was not odd, considering she has medical knowledge.
"Hey, Sakura. How long have I been out?" he inquired, making the girl jump.
She smiled at him and got up. After picking up some of her things, she walked up to him and sat down. "Well, I'd say about two hours. It's around 8 o'clock now."
"What?!" He exclaimed, "God damn it! Think of the time we wasted!"
"Naruto, it's ok, really. All we can do is hurry tomorrow. Anyways, I'm making a medicine to balance you out. Sasuke said you were kind of jumpy." She picked up a small vial with a clear liquid in it. "I'm almost done it. After you take a sip, the ingredients will go into your system and you should calm down and concentrate."
Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Thanks." He then began to look around, "Hey, where are Sasuke and that guy anyways?"
Sakura sighed wearily, "Well, Ame-san said he heard water, so he went to go find the source and bring some back. And Sasuke went to get fire wood."
Naruto nodded. "I see. Are we camping here tonight? I mean, I can continue going. I'm fine, really." However, he was not fine; his senses were still on the fritz. He could still smell the animals, and the wild feeling inside of him did not go away. He smelled a wolf nearby. "Ever eat wolf?"
Sakura blinked, "No, why?"
"Well, we didn't expect this to happen, and we are low on food. There is a wolf nearby, want me to kill it?" His mouth began to water. The thought of killing the wolf and just tearing into the flesh with his teeth - *What am I thinking? I'm not a wild animal!*
"Uh, no, it's ok. Messing with wolves can be dangerous." Then she paused, "Wait, how do you know there is a-"
Naruto cut her off by getting up with a wild look in his eyes. *What are you doing?* His body was out of his control. He felt a strange power, something similar, yet different from the Kyuubi presence; something more mundane.
Sakura stood up beside him, "Naruto? Naruto, what's wrong?"
He grinned at her, and then dashed off into the woods, following the scent of the wolf. He felt his body move differently, he was moving quickly, and soundlessly weaving around trees. He started running on all four's. He stopped suddenly and listened.
"I know you're out there." He whispered. The scent was coming from behind a bush about ten feet away. Naruto crouched and waited until his prey moved. He was reminded of how he used to stalk Sasuke. Except this was different, with Sasuke he was just playing. However, right now, it was real. He was hunting.
He heard a gentle crunching of leaves behind him. He felt someone there. He waited until the person came closer. The scent he was picking up was familiar, but his body continued to refuse to make logical decisions. The presence was now about three feet away, and he figured it was time. He whipped around and pounced.
...................
Konohamaru stretched; glad to be free of his cell. "Ah, fresh air!"
The man beside him smiled, "Yeah. Ah, sorry for locking you up like that. I mean, it really isn't necessary. All I gotta do is keep an eye on you."
"Erm, Kyou-...." Konohamaru paused, unsure of what title to call his prison-master.
Kyou chuckled, "Just Kyou is fine. We aren't going to be in each others company for much longer."
The young boy chuckled nervously, "Yeah, well, Kyou, why are you being so nice? I mean, aren't you supposed to keep me locked up, not feed me, get your lackeys to beat me, and so on?"
Kyou laughed at how naïve the boy was, "Listen, I could harm you, but I'd rather not do anything to anger your little buddies any more than they already would be."
Konohamaru frowned, "Is that so? What makes you think that not being angry makes them weaker?"
Kyou chuckled, "Weaker? I already know what they are capable of. Yes, they are very strong when they are neutral, but when they are angry, especially a certain boy, they get even worse." He stopped walking and looked to the ground, "But that isn't the only reason why, boy. And I don't wish to share anymore with you."
Konohamaru sat on the ground and stared ahead. "He'll kill you."
The older man looked up at the boy, "Who?"
"Naruto." He turned around and smirked at the man, "He's the one who's coming, right?"
Kyou ran a hand through his dark hair and breathed out sharply. "Yeah. And I am aware how he's going to feel, and what he's going to do. Or try to do, depending on whether my plan works or not."
The boy smiled, "You aren't like most adversaries, you know that?" he chuckled at the man's puzzled expression, "You don't head out into battle blinded by arrogance."
The man smiled, "A mans confidence can be a double edged sword, boy. If used improperly you can do yourself in." he sat beside the boy, "If I underestimate the enemy, I'll only be troubled in the end. But, if I analyze the situation, and deduct from that, I can know my enemy."
Konohamaru blinked, "So what have you figured out so far?"
"Well, you are Sarutobi Konohamaru. Grandson of the late third Hokage. Surely, they don't want anything bad to happen to you. And considering my agents in Konoha arranged the whole thing, Tsunade sent out three skilled ninja. I already know who one is, for sure. I can guess the other two easily. Uzumaki, Uchiha, and Haruno. I already knew Uzumaki would be sent; I set this up especially for him. But if my agents did their job properly, which I am hoping they did, the other two should be correct."
"So, you set it all up just to get Naruto here." Konohamaru stated, "Why do you want him? And why didn't you just kidnap him?"
"Well, it's a long story, boy." He sighed and brought his knees up, "And I do not wish to tell you. Let's just say he's strong, probably stronger than me."
...................
"Ouch! Sakura! Can you be gentler?!" Sasuke yelped.
Sakura sighed, "If you keep on squirming, it'll only hurt more!"
Naruto paced beside them, he glanced at Sasuke. Sakura was bandaging Sasuke's shoulder. But even now, the blood was seeping through. He felt a pang in his chest and still tasted the blood in his mouth.
............... Flashback ................
*Here wolfie, I know you're there.* I stepped forward towards the bush I felt the wolf hiding behind. I felt my ears perk at a sound behind me. Foot steps. I wondered who it was. The presence came closer. And before I could stop myself, I turned around and lunged at the thing.
"Naruto!" a familiar voice said, rather surprised. I knew who it was, Sasuke. But I still could not stop myself. Next thing I knew he was yelling in pain, cursing at me, tearing at my head. Trying to...
Trying to detach my jaws from his shoulder. But I held on tighter and bit down harder. The taste of his blood consuming my mouth.
....It was delicious.
But after some struggling and fighting, someone else came around and managed to get me off him. Everything went black.
..............
Naruto felt sick to the stomach, "What's wrong with me?" he mumbled more to himself than the others.
But Sasuke responded to his mutterings, "I dunno, you tell me. Why the hell did you bite me?"
The blond boy felt tears in his eyes and shook his head. He sat on a rock and dug around his pockets. He felt something glass and pulled it out. The vial. *Oh, right. Maybe it WILL do something.* He pulled the cork off the top and drank it.
"Naruto?" Sakura said softly, "What was that you just drank?"
Naruto blinked then chucked, "Are you really that forgetful, Sakura? It's the medication you made for me."
Sakura looked completely puzzled, "Medication? I didn't make anything for you."
"What are you talking about? You were making it while I was unconscious earlier. You know, when Sasuke and Amenochi were gone."
"What? Sasuke and I left, Amenochi stayed and watched you." She frowned and was silent as she finished working on Sasuke's shoulder.
"Thanks Sakura." Sasuke frowned and pulled his shirt back on. "So you say someone that looked like Sakura gave you that? Where was Amenochi?"
Naruto looked around, "I dunno. He wasn't here."
Coincidently, the man came out of the woods with a canteen. "I got some more water. Oh, Naruto. You're up. Heh, you are quite the fighter. I had a hard time getting you off of Sasuke."
Naruto looked down, "I-I'm sorry..."
Sasuke sighed and smacked Naruto across the head, "There. There's your punishment, forget about it." He paced up to Amenochi, "Where were you before that? You were supposed to be watching him! And now he just drank something that someone gave to him while you were gone!"
The man blinked, "I was only gone for a couple of minutes. I had to take a piss. It's impossible that someone could have come here."
Sasuke rubbed his temples as if feigning off a headache. "A piss? Couldn't you have waited any longer? At least till one of us came back?"
The man frowned, "But I did. Sakura came back. When I got back, Naruto was running off and I told her to stay here while I went and got him."
Sakura stood up, "Someone must have came here disguised as me." She looked at Naruto, "Naruto, you are a good enough ninja to...Naruto?"
Naruto was sitting there, his eyes were glazed over and his mouth was hanging open. Closer inspection showed that he was perspiring and his breathing was getting erratic.
"Naruto?" the girl went up and laid him down; she took off his shirt and folded it, resting it under his head like a pillow. "Fuck, this is turning out bad. I wonder what he drank."
Sasuke decided to finish off what Sakura was saying, "Naruto is a good enough ninja to see though all henge jutsu's. And you were fooled by the person too."
The man thought for a moment. "This seems like a thing he'd do. But what was in the vial?" he walked over and picked up the little bottle and smelled it. "Well, that was completely useless. No scent."
"Here" Sakura held out her hand, "Maybe you aren't trained to smell such things." After receiving the bottle, she sniffed it. "Hm..." She sniffed it again. "It definatly has medical ingredients." She ran her finger over the rim then licked her finger, "Oh god, strong."
"How could you smell anything?" the man pondered, "I mean, it has no scent."
She smiled, "It's not the scent. It's the fumes." She dug around her bag and pulled out a notebook. She began to write in it.
He nodded. "Do you know what it is?" He walked around behind her and looked over her shoulder to what she was writing.
"No, I don't. Sasuke, can you get a cloth and wet it?" she wrote some more and mumbled some of the things she was writing, "Perspiring, dazed, erratic breathing." she continued listing off symptoms.
"What are you doing?" the man asked her.
She paused for a moment, "Writing down his symptoms. After that I'm going to write down what I can pick up from that vial."
"Kay, Sakura. I got the damp cloth. Now what?" Sasuke said while holding the cloth.
"Can you wipe the sweat off his face? After that, rest it on his forehead." She was back at writing, she did not seem to miss a beat while instructing him.
"O-okay." He mumbled and kneeled next to Naruto. He gingerly rested the cloth against his friends' cheek. He wiped the cloth over his cheek and over his forehead.
Sakura pulled a book out of her bag and began to look through it. After several minutes, she sighed loudly. "I wish he'd snap out of it.I mean I need to know more." She looked over at Sasuke. He was lying down next to Naruto, his hand on his shoulder. She noticed his breathing was shallow and even. A smile spread across her face. "Sweet dreams."
Amenochi kneeled next to her, "What do you need to know?"
She sighed, "Hm, like, how he feels, and so on. There are several things that are matching what I noticed, but it's how he feels that can narrow it down." She paused and thought for a moment. "Tell me more about.this guy you continually mention. What kind of methods dos he use?"
The man sat down and leaned his back against a rock. "Oh, where should I start?" He sighed and thought for a moment. "Well, during the couple of years that I have known of him, I've seen and heard of things that he's done." He paused and seemed to be searching for words. "He's into breaking people down before getting a hold of them. He also sometimes gets his lackeys to spy, or brainwash people."
She looked up, "Brainwash? How?"
"Oh, I don't know. I've never actually seen anyone brainwashing people. That was just a rumor. But it's one we should be weary of." He looked over at the semi-unconscious boy.
She looked over some pages in the book. "Does anyone in the group have any mind-control jutsu's, or anything like one?"
He looked at her and thought, "I'm not completely sure, but the leader has some type of jutsu that influences the mind."
"The leader? Can you please tell me his name?" Sakura said while reading the pages some more. "I think I might have figured something out."
"Oh, his name is..." he paused yet again, "Shinzuino. Shinzuino Kyou."
Sakura's head snapped up, "Did you say Shinzuino?"
He blinked at her, "Uhm, yeah. Shinzuino."
"Oh god, what have we gotten our selves into?" she placed her head in her hands.
The man looked puzzled, "What, you've heard of him?"
She sighed then nodded, "Yes. I have. How can I forget such a thing?" She placed a leaf on the book then closed it, saving her spot. She straightened up and sighed once again, "When we were learning about history back at the academy, we learned all about major clans and such. And we learned not only of the Fire Country, but from all the countries and hidden villages.
But how can one forget a history as gruesome as that of the Shinzuino family. It makes me wonder if Konohamaru is even alive..."
...................
Baka: Chapter FINISHED!
Inner Baka: Odd place to end?
Baka: There is a reason. ^_^ Next chapter: history of the Shinzuino family!
IB: Ya know what? This is turning out like the show. "Big thing happens, group gets together, traveling along/working away, stuff happens, suspense builds, a whole episode dedicated to the history of a new character/bad guy (sometimes we're lucky and get 2 or 3 episodes! -.-') characters continue on adventure, meet up with bad guy, inner emotional tragedy (or something else just as fun), fight fight fight, and.ending unknown? Naw, the ending is always known. Ha!
Baka: Yeah. However, trust me; the whole chapter is not going to be the history, heh.
IB: Did you not say you were going to make up excuses now?
Baka: Oh yeah! I forgot. *clears throat*
Ok everyone! As for why this took so long.
I got sick. I was off school for two whole weeks. My brain was not creative. That was not fun. Then, I was swamped with homework. Then, I got sick again. This time it was a sinus and throat infection. This was around mid December, right before Christmas break. I actually had to miss two days of school in the last week. Man that was so un-fun. Now, during Christmas break.I was still sick. Sickness = no ideas! Oh yeah, I forgot, like, the Tuesday of the week before Christmas holidays, my computer DIED! Now, if that does not suck, get this. The problem was that my POWER SUPPLY died, and it took the MOTHERBOARD with it. Therefore, I had to get a new motherboard and new power supply. Moreover, because my new motherboard was not compatible with some of the old things, I had to get new things. In addition, you know what else? I lost all my files. *smiles* including my documents. Like my pictures and STORIES! Fuck. And right now, this very moment, I am still sick, but recovering happily. I have been sick for 3 weeks. *nods*
IB: Yes, Baka was having a stupid time. But hey, she is back, and updates will be more common. :D
To all people who commented last chapter: Hi! I know you were waiting for the next chapter, unless you were all turned off for whatever reason. (I will kill you if you say there was gay porn in my story again. There IS NO PORN. Jeez, so far, nothing has happened and they ARE NOT TOGETHER...............yet...)
So, anyways, I'll be seeing you next chapter!
Next chapter of "After Innocence":
Sakura tells Amenochi the story of the adversaries past. The story is both violent and gruesome. It will most certainly be interesting.
Also, what just happened to Naruto? Sakura explains all in the next chapter of "After Innocence: Life after childhood".