Vidina woke finding himself in what appeared to be a hospital bed. He raised his arm over his head. Every part of his body ached. He opened his eyes to the bright light above him. He looked down and found himself relatively alive. His head hit the pillow. "Its about time you woke up." Vidina turned his head and saw Sasuke sitting by the door. "We thought it best that one of us stay here and wait for you to wake up."

Vidina still a little disoriented from the bright lights rested his head on the pillow once more. "How long?" He closed his eyes in an effort to relieve his headache. Sasuke got up and approached the bed.

"About a month." Vidina took a deep breath while Sasuke continued. "You were in pretty bad shape when we found you. It took the doctors about a week to treat all your wounds." Vidina thought back to the last thing he remembered. His eyes opened wide.

"The boy...what happened to the boy?" Vidina reached out and grabbed Sasuke's wrist. Sasuke saw the emotion in his eyes.

"He's safe. He was in pretty much the same shape you were in when we found you. However he hasn't wakened up yet." He brought the chair up to the bed and sat down. "What happened? When we found you the entire area around your bodies were practically sand. It was as if something stepped on you and grounded buildings nearby to dust."

Vidina slowly sat up and looked at Sasuke. "It was Roosta. He attacked the young ones. I intervened. He has become a lot stronger then I expected, I was unable to defeat him." He closed his eyes. "I was expecting to die...the boy." He looked at Sasuke. "His barrier must have held. Amazing."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked. He gave Vidina his full attention. "Both of you would be dead if we found you a minute later than we did."

"Exactly." Vidina stated. "Before Roosta's attack, that boy came to me in an attempt to save me." He sat up straighter in the bed. "He put up a barrier in an attempt to block Roosta. It failed of course but it must have held long enough to keep us alive." He smiled. "Amazing..."

Sasuke nodded and thought about what he said. He got up. "I'm going to talk to the others." He walked over to the door. "You should get some rest."

Sasuke then walked out of the room leaving Vidina with his thoughts. Vidina smiled and looked out the window. "I think I may have found an interesting egg." He said to himself and then became lost in thoughts.

The village

Hikari sat at the corner of a street just watching the scenery. It had been one month since the attack and everyone was working hard to rebuild. Things had to be fixed, mended and rebuilt. She wanted to help but she did not know what to do.

At that moment a man showed up behind her. "Are you all right?" He asked. She turned her head to see who it was but did not recognize him. He was tall, had blonde hair and blue eyes. He also wore a large black coat with an orangey lining at the bottom and around the sleeves.

"What does it matter?" She returned to her original position before he came. The stranger smiled and took a few steps forward and sat down beside her.

"Well apparently it does matter." She continued to ignore him. "Its just that I see in your eyes what I used to see in mine." He waited for her to say something Hikari remained silence. "But if you don't want to talk to about then I'll be on my way." He stood up and left.

After an hour she finally stood up and left the street corner. She walked up the street passing heavy construction, trucks, and people with boxes. She stopped at the noodle shop for a moment just staring at it before continuing on toward the mountain of faces. When she got to the foot of the mountain she climbed it and crawled through a small crack below the third Hokage. Inside was a little boxed valley about a couple of acres in size. She found a shady spot and sat down. She was angry with herself. "Why did he have to do that?" She said under her breath.

The main building

Sasuke made his way up to the Sixth's office. He opened the door and found Neji sitting in his chair reading a report. He then noticed several reports on his desk. "He is awake. "Sasuke said as he approached the desk.

Neji dropped the battle report and looked up at his friend. "That's the first good news I've heard for awhile." He motioned to all the papers on his desk. "Maybe now we'll know who we are up against." He laughed and then sighed.

"So how goes the war?" Sasuke asked as he sat down in a wooden chair facing Neji. Neji just stared at him and shook his head.

"I'm not sending you out. I don't care how well you feel, you got one more appointment with the doctor. If he says you've fully healed then we'll talk about you next mission"

"Had to try." Sasuke smiled and then shrugged. He then began to explain what Vidina told him earlier in the hospital. Neji sat back and took the information in. "Okay but I still want to know why those three were doing out there. Sakura said she took them to the shelter. What would make them want to leave? Hinata said she talked to them but neither told her anything." Neji then looked down and began to scan a couple of the reports on his desk.

"What I want to know was how? The shelter was designed with three ways in and out. The main gate and two exits just in case the enemy ever got in. All three gates were heavily guarded and all the Anbu assigned said no one got out." Sasuke leaned back in his chair. Neji agreed, that was one of the many questions he had for Tapion when he woke up, if he woke up. Then they heard the door open behind them. Neji's face went white as the person entered. Sasuke quickly turned around to see what had Neji so spooked. A familiar blond haired, blue-eyed man stood at the door.

"Naruto..." Was all Neji could utter. Sauske on the other hand got up from his chair to face his former comrade.

"Where have you been?" He asked.

Naruto smiled and shook his head. "After six years that's all you have to say to me?" He extended his hand and the two shinobi shook hands. Naruto then turned his attention to Neji, who had got up from his desk and now stood next to Sasuke. "I see you've adjusted to the job quite nicely as I thought you would." He then beamed a large grin at them both and all three started laughing.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Neji asked when the laughter subsided.

"Yes and no. I found what I wanted but not what I needed." He answered. Sasuke approached him.

"Another adventure I see." Sasuke stated. Naruto turned his stare at him. Sasuke was surprised, he had never seen this side of Naruto before but then again he had been gone for six years and a lot can happen in that time.

"No, not this time." He said unemotional. He soon returned to his normal lighthearted self. "Besides from what I've seen it looks like you need all the help you can get."

"With your return and Rock's it looks like we may win this yet." Sasuke smirked. This sparked Naruto's attention.

"Rock? When did he leave?" Naruto curiously asked. "Tell me everything that's happened." The three each took a seat. This was going to be a long conversation.

Outside the room Hinata was walking down the hall toward Neji's office. She had just returned from a mission and had important information on Roosta that she had to get to him right away. She paused at the door hopping her friends were okay. Shino and Kiba stayed behind to ensure her escape. She did not want to leave them but she was the fasted out of the three. She opened the door and saw Sasuke and Neji talking with a third person she did not recognize. Neji and Sasuke looked up and saw her. The third figure dressed wearing a large black coat with an orange lining at the bottom stood up and faced her. She looked into his blue eyes and slowly her memory returned. They just stood looking at each other for what seemed like forever. Naruto eventually broke the stare and took two steps toward her. "Hinata..." He quietly uttered under his breath.

The hospital

Later that day Saitou entered the hospital. He walked up a flight a stairs and entered a long narrow hall. The floor, ceiling and walls were all painted a distinct white color and Saitou could smell the cleanliness in the air. He stopped on the third door and waited in front of it. He felt bad he couldn't visit as often as he wanted but between cleaning up and repairing his home he had no time. He slowly opened the door. He looked at Tapion lying in the bed. No change. He then saw the girl asleep in a chair next to the bed. He put a hand on her shoulder to wake her up. She shifted around a little before waking up. In a very groggy voice she turned to look at Saitou. "What time is it?"

"Its time to go. I ran into your dad in the lobby." She yawned and stood up stretching her arms into the air. He shook his head. "Listen, Naomi you can't just stay here all day. Its not healthy."

She lowered her arms and looked at him seriously. "I know." She walked past him and out the door. Saitou looked over at the table where a vase with a sunflower sat. 'She comes everyday with a different flower.' He thought to himself.

He then took the seat that Naomi was sleeping in and moved it two feet toward the center of the room. "Hey you there. Its time to wake up." Saitou smiled and sat in the chair for the next three hours.

A/n: And so ends Act I: The next chapter of Konoha, there will be a fifteen-minute intermission before Act II: The Shadow War. I'm not quite sure whether to start it as chapter 15 in this story or completely start over with a new story. I'm leaning toward the latter one. What do you guys think?