---8-
Tsunade sighed as she finished examining Naruto. Sasuke was standing not too farfrom Naruto, still in his hospital clothes just as Naruto was. She couldn't believe this was happening.
Naruto was staring at the ground his eyes sad.
"There's no good news Naruto. You don't have much time left."
Naruto nodded to this. Sasuke stared at the blonde for a while then stared out the window again.
The moment passed in silence. Then Naruto fixed his face and stood up smiling like he used to when he was young. "Ne ba-chan, we'll make the most of it."
Tsunade couldn't help but smile at Naruto. "Gaki." Tsunade mumbled and waved Naruto away. "I need to talk to Sasuke. Go back to your room Naruto." She told him gently.
"Are you going to make him watch me again like after the last time?" Naruto asked in the voice he used when he was younger. "You know we live together; it's going to be even more annoying if he starts following me around again. You know I'm the Hokage right? I have important business!" Naruto got the last statement in before Tsunade completely pushed him out of the room and locked him out.
Sasuke was smiling at the scene. He missed being young.
--
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were back at the clearing where Sasuke and Naruto had met the leaders of the invaders of Konoha.
Sasuke bent over Naruto's bloody hand print on the ground. There was now a seal around it.
Sakura kneeled beside and then paled. "Na-Naruto."
"Sorry Sakura-chan."
Sasuke looked at the two of them with curiosity. "What is it?" He asked them.
Sakura looked at Naruto and he seemed hesitant to explain so Sakura proceeded for him. "It's called the Belly of the Beast. There is a cavern under here."
"Can we go down there?" Sasuke looked at Naruto and Naruto shook his head.
"It's not a good idea Sasuke." Naruto then passed Sasuke a look from behind Sakura that said 'leave it be for Sakura's sake'.
Sasuke gave a barely visible nod.
Sakura got up and walked over to one of the bodies of the defeated leaders that still lay there.
"I'll send someone to clean it up later." Naruto said. "What can you tell me?"
"They are from a clan called Kinao. I heard they were trying to reestablish themselves in the north. I guess they did this to prove themselves... maybe."
--
After Sakura excused herself from the group to attend to her duties again at the Hospital, Sasuke turned to Naruto.
"I guess you want to see it." Naruto asked with a sigh.
Sasuke nodded in response.
Naruto walked to the bloody handprint and crouched in front of it. He cut his finger and touched the hand print. A few feet away the earth errupted open and revealed a shaft in the ground.
Sasuke walked over and looked down into the hole in the ground. All he could see was darkness. Sasuke immediately summoned ropes and walked over to a tree. He secured the ropes there and then walked back to the hole. He threw them in and saw them unravel part of the way and then he couldn't see it anymore but he could hear it unraveling and falling.
"It's deep." Naruto told him from behind.
Sasuke nodded and tested the rope before he started his way down using concentrated chakra at his feet to hold on to the wall. Naruto followed Sasuke into the shaft, sliding down part of the rope before securing his feet against the wall.
After a few minutes and much further down they were in total darkness. Sasuke felt the walls of the shaft change texture and he stopped walking. Naruto who was only a few steps behind bumped into Sasuke.
"Careful dobe." Sasuke said over his shoulder to Naruto.
"Why did you stop?" Naruto asked.
"The wall changed."
"Hunh?" Naruto tapped his feet on the wall and finally noticed the changed texture. "Oh." Then suddenly the shaft lit up in front of them, torches had come alive. Sasuke looked over his shoulder at Naruto and noticed his hand on the wall. He assumed Naruto had performed some ninjitsu.
Sasuke focused back in front of him and noticed that the shaft came to end not too far down and turned into a tunnel perpendicular to the shaft. He jumped down to the ground and Naruto followed. They were surrounded by stone walls. The passage was narrow and long.
"Naruto?"
"Hmm?" Naruto was inspecting the stone wall. "It didn't look like this when I was here last." He mumbled.
"Why is the passage down here so long?" Sasuke asked.
"To discourage people from coming down here." Naruto shrugged like it was the obvious answer.
Naruto took the lead down the passage and was looking around at the walls. Sasuke too looked around but didn't see what was so interesting about the walls so looked straight ahead again.
Naruto stopped a few feet from a very solid looking iron door that was rusting at the edges. He was looking at the wall again. Sasuke walked up to the door and examined it. It was strange. It had no handle of any kind and no key hole. It had something carved into it in english though he didn't recognize any of the words. He traced some of the lettering with the finger tips and looked over his shoulder to Naruto.
"Dobe, what does this say?"
"Hunh?" Naruto turned and looked at what Sasuke was speaking of. "Umm..." He walked over to Sasuke's side leaned in closer to the door. "That girl wrote this in I guess. Um... Anith patthe yudda na, anith patthe kalu. Minissu cana beast ii, minissu ennacung beast budii. Me dora arinna epa, me dora arinna ba.Beast wa danne nathung, me dora arenne na." He struggled through it.
"I can read that much baka. What does it mean?" He asked irritably
"On the otherside there is no war, on the otherside it's black. The man eating beast lies there, until man arrives the beast slumbers. Don't open this door, can't open this door. If you don't know the beast, you can't open this door." Naruto almost recited.
"Could you really understand what was written there?" Sasuke asked with suspicion.
"Nope. I'm just guessing. That's what she always sang." Naruto answered as he walked back to the wall he had been examining.
"You mentioned her before, who is she?"
"You'll find out soon enough." Naruto rubbed his cut finger with his thumb and agitated the blood once more while he continued to appear to read something on the wall. He then pressed his finger, to Sasuke what seemed a random spot, on the wall, but suddenly the door creaked open a little.
Sasuke placed his hand at the edge and moved to push it open but Naruto's hand was there grabbing his wrist and pulling his hand gently away from the door.
"What was carved on the door was a warning. The beast lies on the otherside waiting to eat men and it likes to keep them alive while it feeds. If the guardian was here, she would have never allowed you in. She maybe on the otherside though." He said thoughtfully. "Becareful, she might decide to keep you here."
Naruto then pushed open the door and stepped in with Sasuke following closely. Soon as they were clear of the door they heard the door shut close. Sasuke looked back but all he saw was cavern wall.
There were two torches sitting on either side of the door that lit that small area but beyond the torch light it was darkness. When his eyes adjusted to the little light, Sasuke could only see what looked likea normal cavern. A very large and for the most part hollow cavern, but still very normal. There were pillars of stalagmite through out the cavern and large rocks here and there, but Sasuke saw no sign of a beast.
Suddenly something jumped in front of them. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke flinched though. It was in the shape of a tiger but it had blue-green scales for skin. It's tail was like a whip, it swayed from side to side in the air and at times slapped the ground leaving scars on the ground and sending rubble into the air. It stood there staring at the pair with its pure black eyes. It had a pair of long fangs that protuded out of it's mouth about 4 inches.