Ah! How long is it since I last updated! (Slaps myself, slapslapslapslapslap) But because of school, and school, and more school... school deprives me of time! And I don't really like this chapter, it's boring! But nessessary?Anyway, I'm still angry at myself for being so slow! (slapslapslapslapslap) But I promise, next chapter, I'll write about the motives...

Phase 3: Beginning of a Dream, Ending of Another

Nara Shikamaru sighed loudly to no one in particular as he ambled his way down the empty corridor of the headquarter. Although he was not feeling sad or depressed, somehow, deep inside, he felt heavy. Maybe it was just lethargy, with all the work assigned to him after he became a Chuunin, it would not be surprising to feel tired once in awhile. Or maybe I'm getting old… Shikamaru chuckled dryly at his own joke. Sticking his hands into the pockets of his worn out pants, he stuck out his lower lip slightly when he felt a hole, large enough to fit through two fingers in one of the pockets. He ignored the hole though he fiddled with it for some time until he almost reached his destination.

As he turned around the corner, Shikamaru lets his gaze stretched across the corridor to the Hokage's office. It was cordoned and he spotted Shizune standing by the doorway, she looked upset. Though her back was facing him, he knew she was giving out orders from her arm gesture. Followed by two Chuunin he did not recognized, carrying stacks of books and papers out. Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, he quickened his pace to the office.

He tilted his head when the office came into view. Suddenly, he slowed down his pace to a halt before the room. Cringing back slightly, his teeth gritted and he felt his left eye twitching uncontrollably. Shizune, who was still surveying the site, whirled on her spot when she sensed someone behind her.

"Oh! Konnichiwa, Shikamaru-kun. What brings you here?"

Shikamaru stared at her for a second to long before snapping back to reality when he realized she was talking to him.

"Eh? Uh, Konnichiwa, Shizune-san. Urm… What happened… here?"

Shizune blinked twice. "Here?" She gestured to the office.

"What else did you think happened here?" She said with a sigh.

Throwing a glance at Shizune, Shikamaru lets his gaze returned to the urm… office. He scanned the room while processing what she had said when his eyes rested on what remains of the fallen door. Instantly, it hit him! Smacking his forehead, he groaned inwardly,

"Tsunade-sama…"

Shizune nodded with a tight smile on her lips. "Yup."

Shikamaru slumped his shoulders and exhaled sharply,

"This isn't the first right?"

"No, this isn't the first time but I don't remember which time this is now?"

Scratching his head, Shikamaru wondered if Tsunade was under so much stress that resulted to her growing destructive personality and also in her super-human strength because if his memory served him right, each new 'episode' of hers seemed to be worse than the previous one. So if she was really exposed to the kind of stress which the upshot was 'this', it would surely be a gain for her and a pain to Konoha's bank. She wouldn't last long as Godaime too…

"So what brings you here? Shikamaru-kun."

Shikamaru, mustering some strength, managed to tear his eyes away from the office and glanced at Shizune who was looking at him curiously. He stuffed hands into his pockets and shrugged,

"Just looking for Tsunade-sama to report my mission but she's not here… Do you know where she is now?"

Shizune shook her head as she knitted her brows together. "Well… I'm just taking a break from my duty and thought of checking on Tsunade-sama when I saw the office… She probably ran away. I want to look for her but decided to prioritize."

Shikamaru nodded in agreement with her. Given the current situation, he would too, choose to fix up the office first than wasting time searching for Tsunade. However, thinking in another way, he would rather Tsunade herself to clean up her mess than waiting for someone like her protégé to do it. How irresponsible. And she can still call herself a Hokage. Inhaling deeply, his shoulders rising slightly from the action, he held it for a second then letting it out in a huff,

"Ah… So troublesome. I'll just go and look for her then. Ja ne."

He threw one last glance at the office before walking down the corridor when Shizune called to him,

"Oh! Forgot to tell you, I heard that a girl was picked up by Naruto-kun's team and is sent to the hospital. She's in quite a bad shape I think."

Stopping on his next step, he turned his head and look at Shizune from over his shoulder,

"Why are you telling me?"

Shizune shrugged. "Just thought that you might want to know."

Looking away as if in thought, Shikamaru closed his eyes and faced the corridor to continued his little pilgrimage,

"Well, thanks for the information. See ya."

Shizune watched as Shikamaru disappeared around the corner. Averting her eyes back to the ruined office, she noticed something sitting on the damaged teak desk. Making her way to the object, she stared at it while carefully holding it up. On the cover, it wrote: Diamond Swiss Mint Chocolate. Why is there chocolate in Tsunade-sama's office? Examining the box closely, she suddenly recognized that it was the same box of chocolate that Anko had given Tsunade yesterday and she could still remember seeing it somewhere in a pile of 'junk' which Tsunade thinks otherwise. Then, it dawned onto her. Tsunade must had been looking for the chocolate but she forgot where she had dumped it so thus, the chaos here. Being with Tsunade for so long had sure honed her ability to read Tsunade's actions. As the conclusion sank into her mind deeper, her grip on the chocolate box tightened until it actually squashed the contents inside. Fuming silently, Shizune stalked out from the office and stomp down the corridor when one of the Chunnins who were helping out called out to her,

"Eh? Shizune-san where are you going? We haven't…"

Shizune whirled sharply and glared at the Chunnin, a crushed chocolate box in her hand, totally deformed under her clench. She had a deadly look on her usually friendly face. The Chunnin's voice trailed to a mumbled as he gulped loudly, frightened by Shizune's scary look. Seeing that the Chunnin had silent himself, Shizune turned her heels and continued stomping away from the office. Tsunade-sama…!

-.-.-.-

By the time they had finished their morning practices, it was already late morning. Naruto raised his head and stared at the fluffy white clouds drifting lazily on the blue background. He squinted when the sun appeared behind from the clouds and shone brightly onto the field, practically glaring everything dry. He flopped the collar of his suit when he felt the heat getting into him. Ah… Today was such a hot day, not even a single drop of breeze. Sitting under a huge tree, he leaned on his hands and yawned,

"Ah…! This is boring! Kakashi-sensei is late again! What the hell!"

"But you don't need to shout right, Naruto?" Sakura scowled at the blond, both hands covering her ears from Naruto's ear-blasting voice.

Scratching his head with a sheepish grin, he mouthed an apology to Sakura. Sasuke, on the other hand, was totally oblivious to his teammates' conversation. He slid down to lay on his back and crossed his arms over his head. Then closing his eyes, he listened to the noisy calls of the summer bugs. He thought of catching a few winks since Kakashi would not be here until late afternoon when he felt cool air against his skin. Opening only one eye, he closed it again when it was just Sakura fanning him with her hands.

"Fan yourself instead, it's making me giddy."

Sakura jumped; startled at his sudden sound as she thought he was asleep. Slowly, she pulled her hands away and stared at it. After a second or two, she hit her head softly with a fist and laughed sheepishly, a faint blush on her cheeks,

"Ah… Gomen, Sasuke-kun! Thought it'll help you from the heat… heheh… Silly me… heh…"

Naruto grinned from ear to ear when he overheard his teammates talking and looked over his shoulders to them,

"Mah… Sakura-chan, since Sasuke doesn't want your fanning, I don't mind taking the offer!"

Not even bothering to face the blond, Sakura replied coldly,

"Fan yourself."

He pouted at her answer and decided to maybe just keep still and continue his cloud-gazing. Maybe that would help keep him cool. None of them talked for a period of time and the silence between the trio with the loud callings of summer bugs adding to the grimy heat from the blazing sun had began to make Naruto feel uncomfortable. He changed his lying position, fidgeted a bit and tried to ignore the growing unease in him. But the efforts were futile. So he thought of breaking the silence with… erm… erm…!

"Sakura-chan, how's the girl we rescued yesterday?"

Sasuke's eyes flew opened at the mentioning of the mysterious girl from yesterday and averted them to Sakura. She looked at Naruto, then to Sasuke and sucked the inside of her lower lip, feeling very self-conscious suddenly from the unwanted attention. She pried her eyes away and tried to look thoughtful,

"Oh! I visited her this morning and she's recovering quite fast. I think… around two days, she will be able to move around."

She placed a finger on her chin and nodded at her surmise. Sasuke remained silent and looked across the field when he caught Naruto making an 'o' shape with his mouth. Sighing softly, he pushed himself to a sitting position and leaned against the tree trunk,

"So you managed to get some information from her?"

Sakura snapped her head up then quickly looked down and stared at a patch of grass, carefully avoiding Sasuke's intense gaze. Smiling shyly at the fact that Sasuke had just initiated a conversation with her, she nodded and some locks of pink hair fell over her face. Still smiling, she answered,

"Well, because she hasn't fully recovered yet, so I didn't push on her but I managed to know her name…"

Naruto tilted his head. "So what's her name?"

"Shifuen Hijiri."

"Who's Shifuen Hijir?"

The three of them jumped in unison at the voice and looked around frantically when Naruto pointed upwards to the tree,

"Ah! Kakashi-sensei! You're late!"

The white-haired ninja disappeared in a puff of smoke and suddenly appeared again, squatting beside Naruto, a book in a hand and a huge bag pack on his back. Although they had gotten used to their sensei's unfailing rate of late comings, they could not help but asked the same questions about his lateness every time when he finally turns up. And every time, he would give the same answers…

"Ah… Yes, on my way here, I helped a pair of old couple to carry their belongings to their new house and a lady to look for her lost kittens… And of course, I somehow got lost again in the-"

"Way of Life." Naruto and Sakura said together.

Kakashi blinked at his students before nodding pleasingly. "Hmm… I see that we have bonded very well…"

The three of them frowned at him. It did not matter whether their bond had gotten stronger or they had gotten closer to understand each other more to be able to guess what he would say next because it was just a habit of him to say that particular line and they were getting tired of him saying it all the time as an lame excuse for being late.

Anyway, with Kakashi here, Naruto could not but be agitated with whatever new things they were going to do. He was about to ask Kakashi but his sensei cut him as if on cue and the next thing Kakashi said was enough to make Naruto blow his top.

"Mah. Since it's so late now, I guess it's time to end the session. Well, you guys can go home now! See ya!"

Kakashi smiled with his eyes closed as he waited for the usual insults and assaults launched by his now-should-be-very-pissed-off students, well, most of it or maybe, all of it were from the loud blond and a bit of complaints from Sakura but nonetheless, anger. How he loved teasing them. So he waited… waited… A long pause… None came. Cautiously, Kakashi peeked from a slit of his right eye; he realized he was staring straight into three pairs of deadpanned eyes. Glancing at Naruto, he could still see a vein pop at the corner of his forehead but the blond was obviously trying to suppress his fury to prevent himself from beating the crap out of his sensei. And he was doing quite a good job on it. At last, Sakura mumbled,

"It's not even twelve and it's not funny."

Kakashi blinked at her. "Eh?"

Sasuke gazed at him dryly and grunted. "Spill, Kakashi."

Shaking his head, Kakashi raised both hands in the air, as if in surrender and chuckled richly,

"Well, like I said, we have bonded well…"

The three of them sweat-dropped but Kakashi continued, this time, his gaze hardened and his tone changed too. It carried more seriousness.

"We have received a new mission from Hokage-sama that is to investigate the place where you guys had rescued the girl yesterday. And looks like you guys knew a bit about her already… Anyway, the mission commences now and we are expected to return before evening with clear inference of the situation and evidence."

Naruto grimaced. "What? We're going to look at dead bodies and take pieces of them? They're probably rotting now and stinking."

Even though Sasuke did not feel reluctant in accepting the mission, he could not agree more to Naruto about the decomposition of the corpses since their time of demise had past twenty-four hours already. Any vital evidence would have been destroyed through the process. Besides, with the exception of Sakura and possibly, Kakashi, he and Naruto were not specially trained in examining dead bodies. However, he, well… he was not sure about Naruto, did possessed some general knowledge of identifying wounds and handling one from the academy.

"Are you forgetting something Naruto? I'm a medic ninja. I can reverse and slow down the rate of decomposition." Sakura chided at Naruto gently.

Naruto eyes brightened slightly but as quickly as it came, the light vanished immediately. "Sou da na! But they're still rotting dead bodies so they should stink a lot."

"Don't worry, Naruto. I've packed some masks, equipments and deodorants here. You'll be as clean as now after we complete the mission and probably smell better too since I've brought several floral flavours of deodorants." Kakashi reassured the blond as he slipped the bag down on the ground and unzipped it, revealing the contents inside.

Sakura's eyes widened. "Wow, very well prepared."

Kakashi zipped the bag closed after exhibiting it to the trio and pulled the straps over his shoulders,

"Well, so we should get going now."

So far, everything seemed very convincing for them to be in the mission but something still puzzled Sasuke. Clearing his throat to get attention, he gave Kakashi a perplexed look,

"Even if we have Sakura and you in the team, I and Naruto aren't trained for this. So why us and not the medic ninjas from Tsunade's squad or the paramedics from the hospital?"

Kakashi folded an arm to his stomach and rested the other on it, rubbing his chin thoughtfully,

"Hmm… good point you have there. Fine. Do you remember what kind of state the girl was in when you guys found her?"

Sakura nodded. "She seriously injured to a critical point of possible death if we didn't stop the bleeding…." She furrowed her brow as she bit her lip and looked down,

"Well… the bleeding didn't stop entirely though. I only managed to slow it down a bit. It was really a nasty wound and it looks like it was inflicted from deep inside since it was cascading black blood… literally."

Kakashi smiled. "That's why Tsunade-sama had deployed her squad which consists of a very small number of medic ninjas to research on it and you know how difficult it is to raise one. So far, Sakura is the only available one since she is the only student there and why not the paramedics? Because they not specialized in this either. But even if you and Naruto aren't trained for this, you guys can at least come up with some inference since you've been taught some general knowledge about it in academy, right? Besides, you doesn't need to worry that much because Sakura is going to supervise the mission."

Sakura's eyes shot up to Kakashi's face as they widened in disbelieve at the last statement. "Wha… what?"

Sasuke and Naruto too, had their eyes wide opened.

"Sa… Sakura-chan is going to be the lea… leader in the mission?" Naruto spluttered.

Kakashi nodded. "Hn."

Unable to process the sudden announcement, Sakura suddenly felt fear gripped onto her heart as an uprising choking feeling traveled up her throat. She shuddered. As a Chunnin of a higher rank, it was expected from her to displayed good leadership qualities in the team since it was equivalent to the rank of a commander. Also, the mission consisted mostly on examining bodies. So it was quite logical for her to be the leader since anything related to medical sciences were all under her field. However, the thought of leading one did not suit her because she never in the friggin' world led one before! And let's not bother to consider about the previous fact when she was not even confident whether she was able to make a five percent success from the mission!

Letting those negative thoughts invaded her mind, Sakura wringed her fingers nervously as her eyes darted from Kakashi to her teammates then back to Kakashi again before setting them down on her feet and stared at them, hiding them behind her pink hair. Kakashi looked down on the tensed girl and placed a hand on her stiffed shoulder, squeezing it gently,

"Daijoubu! You can do this Sakura. We trust you."

Recovered from the unexpected surprise a while ago, Sasuke stuffed a hand into a pocket and ran the other one through his raven hair. He kept quiet and did not encouraged Sakura but deep down inside, he too, trusted her. Naruto flashed a bright smile at Sakura and did the 'nice guy' pose,

"That's right! We believe in you Sakura-chan! So believe in yourself too and lead us in this mission. Ne?"

Sakura blinked at her teammates, her eyes watered at the corners and gradually, a wave of warmth and comforted enveloped her. The power from the words spoken to her from them amazed her, all the worries and uncertainties were washed away and she felt energized again. Her lips broke into a smile of gratitude while wiping the tears dry with the back of her hands. Inhaling deeply, she nodded her head in confidence,

"Hn! Let's go team!"

In a blink of an eye, the four of them disappeared in a blur.

-.-.-.-

As she had predicted, it was a long day. Tsunade had been hanging around in the library, researching information from mountains of medical guide books and jotting it down on a pile of notes lying on the disarranged table since morning to late afternoon. Despite spending that much time on analyzing Hijiri's injuries, one still puzzled her deeply. If I'm correct, that one causes the blood to turn black. But none of her internal organs are damaged so why the black blood? The strange thing about that particular wound was that it was located in the chakra chamber. It might not be a physical wound, a jutsu? Seal? What damage will it cause for the person? Unable to mold chakra or… She narrowed her eyes at the memory of conducting an examination on the girl yesterday. Drain chakra?

She shook her head; it was not helping at all without her cup of tea. Her brain was getting numb. However, it looks… underdeveloped. So hopefully, if I put a seal on it, it will not endanger Hijiri's life. But… She stretched her back, feeling the soreness in her muscles and then massaged her hurting wrist from long hours of writing. Allowing a yawn without covering her face, Tsunade tossed the pen on the table and reached for her notes.

As if on cue to the sound of the landed pen, Shikamaru poked his head through a crack between the doors and scanned the library. He frowned and pulled his head out, closing the door quietly. Tsunade watched in amusement. She waited for his second attempt even though she was quite certain he had left. Finally, when she saw that there would not be a second one, she shrugged and continued her work when the doors flew wide opened abruptly. Tsunade jumped, surprised by the loud bang of the doors and her notes cascaded down from her grasp, scattered on the marble floor. Fortunately, she recovered from the shock in a split second and glared at the intruder.

Well, the intruder was none other than, yes, Shikamaru. Apparently, it seemed like he had somehow missed Tsunade while scanning the library half-heartedly. Do not blame him though; he had been searching for her for quite a long while and considering he was such a lazy ass in nature, he would have chose to slack somewhere and wait for her to turn up in her office. It was a great improvement… just that he lost concentration easily. After he had 'checked' the library, he was about to leave the building when he thought of seeing a Tsunade there. Not even waiting for a second to pass, he turned and tore down the path that led to the library. When he was reaching the place, he realized that he was running a bit too fast to stop by himself so he used the doors to break his speed. If they were to keep a record of their sprints, this would be his best one.

Anyway, he made his way to where Tsunade was sitting while panting his heart out. The running sure get a hack out of him. Tsunade glared angrily at him,

"What do you want, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru squeezed a side of his aching stomach. While the panting had slowed down, the thirst was kicking in. Eyeing the table in his bent position, he scowled. Aside from the papers and books on the table, it was clean of foodstuff. However, while looking at the table, he caught sight of Tsunade's incensed look. Even if there was a cup of tea, he would not be able to take a sip of it. He shook his head miserably, the liquid was difficult to produce in his state but right now, sucking his own saliva was the only way out the agony screaming in his throat. He squinted when he felt a burning, sticky sensation as his saliva wets his dry throat. Muffling a cough, he looked up at Tsunade,

"Ah… Sumanai… A bit carried off, looking for you."

An elegantly arched brow rose up. "Oh…? Sou desu ka?"

Shikamaru stood straight and dipped his head in a nod. "I've been looking for you for a long time."

Tsunade glared daggers at him. He should not be so callous with her temper. Shikamaru twitched his eye when he felt a deep abyss in his stomach at Tsunade's death glares. He knew he had stepped on one of her strings. He tore his eyes from her fury orbs and cast his gaze down. Then, he espied on the scattered papers on the floor and decided to help the fuming blond stack them up, also for a reason to avoid her glares.

Still bending over fallen papers, Shikamaru cleared his throat,

"I come here to report on my mission."

Tsunade tried to sound pissed. "That's all?" His four days mission? Maybe he knew something about the Shifuen territories since his mission route passes there if I remember correctly…

The boy shook his head as he stood up from his bend form, a stack of papers in his hand. He walked slowly to Tsunade and handed her notes back. "I thought of reporting this to you since it might concern Konoha's safety."

Tsunade looked at him seriously as she took the papers. "Speak."

Shikamaru nodded. "Yesterday, when my team was passing the forest near a territory you mentioned to me that it belongs to a noble clan named, Shifuen. They are one of the biggest buyers of Konoha, especially in rice products, right?"

Tsunade stiffened at the name and looked at Shikamaru intensely. He cleared his throat and continued,

"Though we can't see it because we're still at a distance from the place, we detected huge amount of chakras from there and the patterns of those unknown chakras were disorganize. Like there was a war."

Tsunade's eyes darkened evidently. "A war?" Ma saka…?"

Suddenly, a medic ninja ran into the library, calling to Tsunade,

"Tsunade-sama! We've found it! The source of the wound on the girl! We've found the solution! We can conduct an operation now! Tsunade-sama!"

Tsunade and Shikamaru had surprise written on their faces. Tsunade's eyes lit up slightly. Pushing herself from the sofa, she took her notes alone and waved to Shikamaru,

"Well done on your mission Shikamaru. About the other thing, just leave it to me. I know what to do."

Then she smirked. "But would you please place the books back to their original shelves for me? Thanks! Ja ne."

Shikamaru watched as they disappeared down the corridor, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips when he recalled what Tsunade had said to him as last words. His smile froze and ponderously, he turned his back.

"Tsunade-sama…!"

-.-.-.-

"Why do we need to set up a tent?" Naruto asked, his voice sounded muffled through the mask while he secured a pole that hangs a corner of the canvas 'roof' over the corpses.

Sakura dusted her hands. "To protect the corpses from receiving too much direct heat exposure and speed up decomposition."

Naruto leaped over a body and squatted beside Sakura who was taking out surgical gloves from three separate zip-lock bags. She wore a pair already and proceeded on sterilizing the instruments needed. Naruto watched as Sakura took one empty zip-lock bag from a box and stick four pairs of tweezers and small scissors into it.

Naruto blinked. "What are you doing Sakura-chan?"

"I'm going to sterilize the tools. Wear your gloves too Naruto. Make sure you don't touch anything after you put them on." She thrust the bag to Naruto who automatically held onto it with his gloved hands and uncapped a bottle with the letters, HCl, written on the label. Then motioning to Naruto to open the bag, she carefully poured some of the solution into it. Recapping the bottle, she took the bag and zipped the mouth close. Slowly, she shook the bag.

Naruto stared at the bottle and wriggled his nose. "What's that? It smells."

Sakura spread a piece of thick cloth on her lap. She removed the instruments from the bag and placed them on the cloth to wring them dry. "It's hydrochloric acid. It can kill germs and can be found in your stomach."

Naruto cringed and peered down at his abdomen. "That thing, in my stomach?"

Sakura giggled. Naruto… What a simpleton. Sasuke and Kakashi made their way to the duo and wore their gloves. Kakashi glanced at the blond,

"You sure are talkative today, Naruto."

Sakura handed them a zip-lock bag filled with tiny plastic bags and a pair of tweezers and scissors each. "He's always talkative."

Sasuke grunted. But the blond was too busy worrying about his stomach to bother to scream at him. Sakura gestured to her team to stand back and kicked Naruto when he did not respond to her order. She positioned her hands before her and made a sequence of hand seals. Then stretching her arms forward, she murmured the name of the jutsu. Naruto's eyes widened as greenish-blue chakra gathered around her palms, seeping through the air as it enveloped the area where the corpses laid. He observed the healing process in awe. Sakura-chan looks so cool… The process went on for a few minutes then slowly, the chakra wall dissipated.

"We can commence investigating now." Sakura looked over her shoulder and smiled.

Not wanting to waste too much time, they began combing for information from the bodies, vigilantly checking every one of them to make sure that no vital evidence was missed. Throughout the mission, Sakura performed her duty as a leader and guided her team with clear instructions in collecting data.

"Look out for symbols on their clothing and try to spot distinctive injuries that are not cause by weapons, when you found an evidence, cut a portion out and keep it in the plastic bags," she edict.

Kakashi nodded. Sakura was doing a great job as a leader. He knew they could count on her. The pink hair girl worked diligently while keeping an eye on her teammates. She smiled. Although she still felt insecure about the post, she was able to face her fear because of the trust and support she had received from her teammates. And she was very grateful for that. So as to thank them, she would ensure that the mission would go smoothly and hopefully, no major problems will pop up.

That' why I'll work harder for them! She shook her head to clear her mind and glared down at the body, putting all her concentration back to her work.

Sasuke was inspecting his second subject when he noticed something. Before they had begun their examination, he saw about three of the eleven bodies bored a symbol resembling a family crest. His guess was confirmed that the three who carried the symbol which had two rectangles overlapping each other in both horizontal and vertical position, in the middle of the rectangles was a six-legged star and a mirror image of two black crescents, were fighting against the remaining eight who were cloaked in black attire and masks.

But judging from their last positions, they seemed to be fighting to protect something, or rather, someone. The girl? He narrowed his eyes. Who is this Hijiri? Is she some important person that those who oppose her wanted her dead so much? He surveyed the battlefield. It was pretty disastrous. They had put up a great battle obviously. Sasuke nodded his head in agreement to his inference, so if she is some very important person and is running away from her pursuers, it means that her clan, post or anything supportive to her had been destroyed already. His lips sagged into a frown behind his mask at the thought of the word 'clan'. Sucking in a deep breath, he lets his mind wandered back to the past, to his tragic past. She's alone now… just like me when I was young…

"This one must be a good guy."

Naruto's loud voice pulled Sasuke back to reality from his reverie. The raven hair boy blinked at the blond who was squatting beside him. Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he stared at the body seriously. Sasuke snorted.

"Dobe." He muttered under his breath.

Naruto turned to him. "Eh?"

Sasuke ignored Naruto and shouted to the far end of the shelter,

"Kakashi, do you know anything about the Shifuen?"

The white-hair ninja looked up from his work. "Ah… Shifuen ka?"

With this, the other three turned their attention to him. Kakashi dropped his last piece of evidence into a plastic bag before started talking again,

"I don't know a lot about the Shifuen except that they are one of the largest buyers of food products from Konoha since their territory consists of too many highlands; they are protected by a natural barrier of mountains. A good location for defense but not enough flat arable lands for farming. And since Konoha is the closest foodstuff producer to them, they had been importing food stocks from us for many years. You can say that our economic relationship is very close and it will affect us greatly if anything hinders their imports."

Naruto raised a brow. "But why didn't I hear of them before?"

Kakashi shrugged. "We've been business partners for so many years, we'll get used to each other and soon, we won't even really take notice of one another."

Sakura tilted her head and looked at her sensei confusedly,

"Wait, so if they have their own territory, doesn't that make them a…"

"Country. Yes, they are a country. They rule over tiny villages and have an army of their own. They're a small country, but a strong one too." Kakashi interrupted her.

"So it's a family who takes charge of a place, right?" Sasuke added in.

Kakashi nodded. Both Naruto's and Sakura's eyes widened in awe. If the Shifuen owns a piece of land, then they would be considered a noble clan. No, should be somewhere near to being a royal family. Sakura glared at a corner of her eyes as she pouted her lips, thinking out loud,

"So… We must address Hijiri as Shifuen-sama, right?"

The trio watched their sensei moved away from the body and trudged over the other tangled ones to the backpack. The younger ninjas followed suit, silently mourning relief that the mission was finally over. The dreadful job. It made them stink. Sakura collected the equipments and little plastic bags of evidences and stuffed them neatly into the bag. Naruto ripped the gloves off to let his hands breathe. Hell, he hated this mission. Kakashi scratched his head as he disposed the contaminated gloves into a plastic bag, it had been itching suddenly during the mission yet he could not even touch a strand of his hair. He would not want to anyway. He watched the boys dismantling the tent and answered Sakura's question,

"I don't know how you should address her but you can always ask her."

Sakura mumbled uncertainly while keeping her eyes focus on packing things back into the bag,

"But she's a noble…"

"Sasuke's a noble."

The green-eyed girl snapped her eyes up. "It's different! I mean… Although I'd talked to her before, I don't really know about her character. Besides, it was always said that people from the higher status are usually bossy and arrogant. I'm not referring to you though, Sasuke-kun! So…"

Kakashi gazed at his pink-hair student. "So what is your first impression of her?"

Sakura zipped the bag and handed to him. "Eto… She's quiet, polite…"

Kakashi slipped the bag over his sore shoulders, man; he needed to lie down maybe some massage would be perfect. "No worries. You can judge that she is a nice person so don't need to get so worked up in with socializing with her. After all, she's just another human being."

While the others were preparing to leave, Sasuke stood before a burnt spot of rocks, staring at it. Shifuen…

"Sasuke-kun! We're leaving now!" Sakura waved to him.

Glancing one last time at the spot, Sasuke turned to join his team.

-.-.-.-

The doors of the operation room were pushed open. A group of white-coated figures surrounding the person on the bed emerged from the room. Tsunade and Shizune followed closely with the group as one of them wheeled the bed to Hijiri's room.

The operation had been very successful although they still do not know what jutsu was that. However, they did found out that the jutsu drains the victim's chakra to the limit and destroys the chakra chamber if the victim releases chakra. The victim might or might not die but they would not know what the outcome would be if the worse happened. Hijiri's condition should be stable after Tsunade had placed a seal on the mysterious jutsu. But the seal might break if she forcefully releases large amount of chakra. Tsunade prayed that would not happen.

Shizune huffed out a sigh in relieve. "It went pretty well, ne? Tsunade-sama."

"Hn. So now, we'll have to wait for her to wake up and clear things up about the Shifuen," Tsunade answered solemnly.

Tsunade signaled for the medic-nin to leave Hijiri's room while she stood beside the sleeping girl's bed. She furrowed her brow; somehow, she had a bad feeling about this...

夢の終わり。。。

-.-.-.-

Review please! Hmm... this chapter is long...