Disclaimer: I own Naruto as much as I own Aunt Jemima. :nods:

Song: Madeleine's Lament from the Interview with a Vampire soundtrack.

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Looking around his room, he wondered why it was so bright. It wasn't daytime anymore… he was positive it was night. Looking around his sparsely furnished room, he noticed a few differences. For one, there was no window. Looking around, he also noticed there was no furniture. Starting to panic, he went to a door-less wall and started to beat at it. Soon his eyes were aching and he could barely see, so bright the light was. He closed his eyes, hoping the light would be blocked, even if it was only slightly. The instant his eyes closed though, it seemed that the light got even brighter; making it unbearable even though his eyes were closed. Sliding to the ground, he banged his head against the wall.

Naruto stared in disbelief at the group assembled before him. This was certainly a mismatched group. First there was his normal team: Kakashi-sensei (complete with brand new Icha Icha book), Sasuke-teme (snide remarks free of charge), and Sakura-chan (in all her medic-nin glory). Then there were the other four. For some reason Gai's team decided to tag along. Naruto twitched. Gai on his own was bad enough… but there was mini Gai here as well, known as Rock Lee (both complete with bowl hair cuts, gigantic eyebrows and speeches of Youth!), plus Neji (who was standing a little too close at the moment) and Tenten. Among all his companions… Tenten somehow seemed the sanest. Naruto sighed. Oh well… this was the group he was assigned too.

"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed. Some people in the group were not as enthusiastic about this mission but some…

"The power of Youth is with you today Naruto! Your Youthfulness is an inspiration to us all!" exclaimed a very worked up Gai, in his still creepy green jump suit. Naruto twitched. Sasuke looked like he was going to hurt Gai, so Naruto latched onto him and started pulling him away, Neji still by his side. Sakura sighed and jumped over to Tenten, but was immediately followed by Lee, who started on his own speech of "Youth!" and "Love!"

"Come on my eternal rival!" Gai exclaimed to the still lagging behind Kakashi. "The springtime of our Youth does not wait for us!"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow but otherwise waved Gai's speech off with a lazy wave of his hand. Strangely enough, that was Gai's last speech for the remainder of the trip… though he did challenge Kakashi several times to some sort of contest.

Gaara felt an uneasy feeling creep over him. Tonight was yet another sleepless night for the former Jinchuuriki. He didn't know what it was, but something big seemed to be happening right under his nose. He hadn't had trouble sleeping till a few weeks ago, his eating habits had changed, and he kept looking over his shoulder. The former Tanuki holder sighed and turned his attention back to the paperwork piled up on his desk. Yet another fun filled day with signing papers. He briefly wondered if Naruto knew that this was what being a kage was all about, but quickly turned his mind away from the Kyuubi holder… he'd only get distracted thinking about Naruto. Sighing Gaara signed another paper.

Time seemed to stop when he signed his last paper of the day. Blinking, Gaara gazed up from his desk to notice that all the ANBU and dignitaries in his office seemed to be frozen in place. Becoming uneasy, Gaara stood from his desk and weaved his way through the stationary people. Getting through the hallway was a bit tougher, but Gaara managed it. He went through the entrance doors and looked about. There was no wind, all the people were stationary and unmoving, and there was a strange presence before him. Squinting, Gaara could make out the form of a woman as she approached him.

A feral grin was spread across her face, which Gaara noted, was decomposing right before his very eyes. She lifted a hand in greeting, before stopping a few feet from him. Gaara didn't know why, but he lifted a hand as well, taking the opportunity to study her. Her whole body was decomposing, and Gaara couldn't figure out how she was alive. Her skin was pallid white at some places, while most were showing signs of decay. She was littered with cuts and bruises making her skin blue and purple and in some places green. The cuts and scrapes were a sharp contrast to the rest of her skin, a dark red that Gaara couldn't help but flinch at for some reason. Her clothes were ripped and torn. Black pants were now frayed and torn. A green shirt was ripped and covered in presumably her own blood. Her feet were bare, and Gaara was loath to note that a few toes were missing. Flinching at the sight before him, and the smell of decay that had finally reached his nose, Gaara backed up from the living dead girl.

"Don't be so hasty to move," her hollow voice called out. Gaara twitched as he found himself unable to back away further as she approached him. "I'm bringing you a message; you could at least stick around to listen to it."

Gaara blinked as she raised a torn and bloody hand to touch his face, smearing blood on his cheek. Gaara twitched imperceptively as she ran her fingers down his throat, leaving a bloody trail.

"I'm here to tell you that things are about to change," she said in that hollow, dead voice of hers, caressing his arms. "Soon it will be like the old days… blood will once again rain in the sand country."

Gaara opened his mouth to say something, but a tattered hand covered his mouth. Gaara tried to get away from the smell of rotting meat.

"Don't worry… it'll all be clear soon," she said ominously before disappearing.

Life seemed to return to the village, and shouts were heard from his office behind him, but Gaara couldn't move. ANBU surrounded him, and he didn't even notice. They checked him for injuries after they saw the blood on him. After confirming the Kazekage was alright, they brought him back to him home, all the while Gaara did nothing.

Naruto mentally hit himself over the head several times. Whose bright idea was it to bring Gai's team along? This was the fourth time they had had to stop because of Gai's ridiculous challenge to Kakashi. Naruto banged his head into a nearby tree before being pulled into the arms of Sasuke.

"Dobe…" was all he got out of the stoic Uchiha. Naruto sighed and shrugged himself out of Sasuke's arms. He didn't know why, but lately the Uchiha heir had been… well, clingy. Sitting on the grass Naruto looked at the sky. It was still early in their second day of travel, but already they were close to Akatsuki headquarters. They'd be nearing the warded barrier soon. Looking up just in time to see Gai somehow pull out a win and bring out his infamous "nice guy pose" Naruto stood and nodded to all the team that was paying attention, basically everyone but Gai and Lee.

Starting off again, Naruto noticed some interesting things around him. The trees were damaged, and there were signs of fire. Furrowing his brow, Naruto remembered that this area was off-limits.

"Hey… what's with all this?" he asked Sasuke, turning to his companion. Sasuke shrugged and looked off into the distance. Deciding that Sasuke was too moody for his own good, Naruto turned to pose his question to Neji.

"It seems that someone's been here recently," Neji said. "Who knows who it was…?"

"Yeah…" Naruto said as Kakashi and Gai ran past the group. Naruto looked at Neji and Neji looked right back, both deciding that their sensei were both equally insane.

Eventually catching up with their now stationary sensei, Naruto was surprised to find that both were quite serious about something. Neji's byakugan activated as he looked at the surrounding area. He moved forward to join Gai and Kakashi and pressed his hand to something in front of him. Naruto was surprised to note that his hand appeared to be pressing against something, but there was nothing to be seen to be pressed against. Naruto blinked. Was there some sort of invisible barrier or something?

Sakura, Tenten and Lee were busy looking at the surrounding area. The land was torn and bleeding, in more ways than one. Bodies littered the ground, many torn limb from limb. When asked if there were any survivors, Sakura only shook her head in the negative.

Sasuke turned his head to look into a tree as he sensed movement, but only saw a bloody corpse lying on a branch of the tree. Turning his head he began to walk away when he sensed movement again. Looking back up at the tree, Sasuke noticed that there was now no body there. Blinking and pressing a hand to his head, Sasuke wondered if he had just imagined the body there only moments before. Moving to the tree, Sasuke climbed it to get a better look at where the body had been only moments before. Pressing his fingers to the bloody branch, Sasuke felt warmth. His eyebrows rising in surprise he jumped out of the tree and rushed over to Kakashi and Gai.

Naruto, meanwhile, was looking through the apparent invisible barrier watching as a figure approached. He knew he should tell someone… but he found that he couldn't open his mouth to do so.

As the figure approached, Naruto realized it was a woman. But from the way she looked, he could tell that she was a little worse for wear. Her skin might have been white normally, but now it was littered with bruises, scars, and blood. Her black pants and green shirt were tattered and torn and covered in blood. Naruto noticed that part of her skin on her face was peeling away and he shuddered. It looked like she was decaying right before his eyes.

Suddenly the world was shaking and he felt like he was being pulled back to reality. Naruto glared at whoever had just shaken him, who just happened to be Sasuke. Naruto pouted and turned back around only to be face to face with the decaying woman. Shouting out in alarm Naruto fell backwards onto the ground. The woman stared at him blankly before looking at the rest of the team, who were slightly disturbed by her appearance.

"What happened here?" Kakashi asked.