Happy holiday, everyone!

What? You don't know what I'm blabbering about? well, in isreal, Poorim started today, it's the jewish version of Halloween, everyone is supposed to wear customes and masks and have fun, or something like that, we celebrate this day because of what has happened in the Aster scroll – which to make the story short, can be summed into a few words: "someone tried to kill us, they didn't succsed, let's eat fatting foods".

I was planning to go as gaara, but I gave up on the idea because I realized I would have to color my hair and find a large gourd, which is really troublesome, and I would also have to fill the gourd with sand, which would make it really heavy and painful to carry around… so in the end, I'm not doing anything, but I took pictures of my friend doing the dojo fight from kenshin (Saitou vs Kenshin, ep 30-31) with real sword, so it was fin

Anyway, I know you aren't here to listen to my rantings, so I'll just say two things.

The first, my favorite (and only) forum has gone through an update, and now I can't login to it, which really sucks.

The second thing concerns this story, I almost didn't get any writing done this week, and it really sucks cuz I have about a chapter planned in my head, it's just that every time I sit down to write I can't connect the ideas into a story, which really sucks, again.

And last thing, I've realized I forgot to tell you where the chapter 10 flashback fits in, it comes in the mid-start of the 'shadow of life' story, after Nruto awakes from the kidnapping for the first time, and before he meets up with Hinata, I think it's somewhere at chapter four or five, not really sure.

Special note: Fanfiction log-in service was down yesterday, so this chapter is 24 hours late…

Chapter 12: The Leaf Reunites

"4 teams died here… sixteen shinobies, they were slain after they shot the flare to the sky" Temari looked at the bodies in disgust, she could only identify the marks on their bodies as scratches made by a large creature, not large enough to rival Gaara, but defiantly not a normal kind of animal. One of the dead genins wasn't killed by the claws of the creature, but that kid suffered a horrible death as well, half of his body was sunk it the ground, the other half was burnt to crisp, the most freighting thing was that the scrolls were still there,  or their ashes to be exact, the murderer left all the scrolls untouched, she knew that he wasn't one of the demons that lived in the ruins of the leaf, "better ask Gaara, we might need to call for a cancellation of this exam" she thought to herself.

"What number is it already?" Karen asked with awe as she looked at the sky, another flare was shot to the sky, followed by a high pitched scream. "I think it was the fifth one since the sunset" hob replied, "are you o.k, Doro?" he asked his friend, "it's,,, disgusting… I can hear her screams… she never got a chance to even feel pain…" He shrugged and tried to block his ears. "anyway, the best chance we got to leave this hell alive is to get all four scrolls for each of us and then hide until we receive further instructions" Karen said, ever since Shally left she had to take the role of strategic leader, it didn't fit her personality, but someone had to do it.

*Crack*

"someone's coming! Get into positions" Karen ordered them, they all jumped to the walls, it made no sense, even with Doro concentrating on blocking his ears, Hob's nose was supposed to alert them of anybody closing in on them.

"phew, my dad would've killed me if he saw me doing this mistake, luckily no one's here to hear that" Gray said. "Exactly, we just started moving, we can't be exposed so soon" Tack responded, they both entered the room.

"It's you two" Karen jumped off the wall, facing the two shinobies from her village, "where are your teams?" she asked, Hob and Doro jumped down and surrounded them.

"We ditched them, we're quitting the exam" Gray answered, everyone else gapped.

"It's too dangerous around here, I've seen the bodies, even the jounins are afraid, we can do this exam next time" Tack continued his friend.

"What the hell? You can't be serious, you're gonna give up cuz of that?" Hob almost shouted. "Even if so, why don't you just use the flares and wait for the jounins to get you out of here?" Doro asked.

"if we do that then we'll be giving away our position to the enemy,  and he doesn't care about scrolls or the exam, we're going to get out of here by foot, as silent as possible" Gray said.

"I can't say it's a bad idea… I've been thinking about it myself" Doro surprised them all, "great,,, so I'm not alone, I think I'd join you" Hob said too.

"What happened to you all? Are you that much of cowards?" Karen blasted out on them, but then she remembered her question, "how did you avoid detection? Hob was supposed to sniff you a mile away, but we didn't know you're here until you messed up with the cracking floor"

"it's something mom gave me before we started this exam, she said that it'd be useful, it's a few scrolls that have simplified version of barriers, it's easy enough for me to use, they block all detection" Tack said in pride, Sakura was known as the best in Genjutsu in the whole sound.

"so. Are you with us or not? We're going to move slow and safely, we don't have a time limit but we plan to get out in twenty four hours" Gray answered.

"I'm in, no way I'm staying here with all the freaks around"

"I'm with you, just tell me what to do"

all the eyes were turned to Karen, she stared back at them and simply said

"go to hell, I'm going to finish this exam"

"you can't be serious! Don't you understand that there are people out there that will kill without a second thought? And without your team you won't be able to even get another scroll!" Gray shouted at her, Sasuke entrusted him with the role of her guardian, his father even told him that if necessary, he should just drag her away from danger.

"you know what?  Let's do it like this, you'll accompany us to the exit, then you can choose to quit with us or to continue, what do you think?" Hob tried; there still was the blonde guy that was after her.

"and if you choose to stay here, I'm sure Gray and Tack will gladly give you their scrolls, right?" Doro added the scrolls to the deal, he hoped that she'll go with them a bit and realize how dangerous it was for her to stay.

"o.k, I can agree for those terms, but don't try to force me out of this exam" she finally said.

"great, then we have a team, now, if you're traveling with us, there are thing you should know, our keys to survive and escape this hell hole" Gray said, then he pointed at Tack, to continue the speech.

"this place is crowded with demons, you've probably seen some of them, they are divided into two groups:

A: the beasts, they are just oversized dogs or wolves, not that dangerous, but they move in groups and are hard to detect. We avoid them as much as we can, but if we have to fight, we finish them all and only then continue moving, else they'll bring more on us.

B: the humanoid ones, they are clones of other people, just that they are demons, their looks and ability varies from each to another, but the fact is that most of them have leaf forehead protectors and that they are usually at least a chunin level enemies, they're easier to detect from the dogs, but much stronger than them, we avoid dealing with them at any cost, unless we're perfectly sure we can beat them.

Other than demons, we have the other teams to worry about, but we can probably avoid them or give them a scroll at the worst case, besides, a lot of the teams are hiding like us, so it isn't the first priority of them

The worst thing around is that murderer, we don't know much about him I've heard he's a demon but different from the rest, we know that he targets everyone he can reach, and he doesn't care about getting the scrolls, if we come close to suspect he's around, we immediately stop and go into hiding until we're absolutely sure it's safe, my mom's scrolls can make us almost invisible, but we ain't taking any chances, got that?

Any questions?"

Tack concluded his explanation, he was proud of himself, perhaps his ninjutsu skills weren't the best, but he did have a fast mind to catch and adapt to new situations.

Hob and Doro knew already about the demons already, except the fact the murderer was one too, but something was still missing.

"I have one… we've encountered a teenager boy and a small child before, they had no forehead protectors, you got any info about who they might be?" Hob asked. "They both had blonde hair, if it helps" Doro added

"no, this time, there are no participants under our age, and the oldest guy around here is completely bald, is it of any real importance?" Gray asked.

None of them answered back, "I'll take it as a no, now, if you mind, we want to rest for an hour and then move on with the plan. I suggest you do the same".

"you thought of a way to introduce yourself already? I don't think she'll be happy to hear "hey! We're both the only relatives you have, and we were hiding away in our holes and left you with the sound to grow up alone", defiantly not, she'll hate it, she'll probably won't agree even to talk with us…" Reilla said.

"You're right, but I messed up on this one, I'll take the full responsibility, besides, she's going to hear about her father, so you're probably better than me to talk with her" Neji replied, he performed the seals and looked around, there was too much demon chackra that clouded his sight to tell who is who, he turned his eyes to the vortex, it was the place that most chackra was coming from, beside it, he saw a stable lump of demon chackra.

"shit, she's near the vortex" he said sharply.

"is it that bad? What will happen?" Reilla asked, what was the outcome when two demons clashed? Total destruction was the usual answer.

"it never happened before so I'm not sure, but we better not take any chances"

Naraku sat and looked at the vortex, it was spinning as usual, sometimes it was slow, sometimes fast, but it always kept its spin. He felt that two demons were being created, he wondered how would they look like, he saw demons at the shapes of all the people his father met except for his father himself, his mother and his sister, Naraku could only think of it as some sort of divine judgment, the only three people that wouldn't hate him, and he couldn't even see a fake image of them, just a blur at his stolen memory.

the vortex focused into the pillar of chackra, a sign that the demons were fully formed, the two jumped out, Naraku looked at them with disgust, he didn't even know their names, but they were two grass nins twins, a part of the group that killed his father's mentor.

Naraku forced out two bubbles of chackra from his palm, the center of both the balls was swirling with black and red, he threw the balls at the two genins and watched them blow to bits, for some reason, he found that to be very pleasing.

Naraku stood up on his legs, he manifested himself at his demon form, "I can't let anyone escape this place…" he said to himself loudly, "it's times like this that make me wish my parents knew Genjutsu like Sakura" his feet could hold the weight of his body anymore, he crawled on his arms to the chackra pool, and sent a hand to touch it.

The feeling of relaxation washed him immediately, every muscle of his body was relieved, Naraku closed his eyes slowly, and allowed himself to fall into sleep.

"Karen, we have something to tell you" Doro started, he could tell she was suspicious of him hiding information from her, he decided that if he would give her only the good news, she won't notice him hiding the bad ones.

"Go ahead, then" she said simply, of course they had, they have been acting strangely the past few days, and both avoided talking to her, which wasn't something expected from them to do, especially since they stated so strongly before the exam they would never leave her and would always protect her.

"we met two of your relatives,,, your mother's cousin and your father's cousin" Hob jumped in, the bigger the surprise, the less chances that she'll notice they avoided talking about demons, to be exact, the small kid and the teenager with no pulse.

That announcement caught Karen off guard and hurled her into a state of shock, she had no relatives, she had no one. She grew up believing in that, she even learned to accept it, was it some sort of bad joke? She ruled that option out, Doro wasn't one for jokes, and Hob's sense of humor wasn't low enough to resort to lies such as that. "What… what do you mean?" she asked silently,

"it's true, we've met them, Hyuga Neji and Uzumaki Reilla, they have a undeniable resemblance to you, blonde hair, white eyes… they aren't lying,,, they saved us after we separated while fighting the demons"

"take me to them" Karen said in anger, "I want to meet them" her eyes burnt with rage, Uzumaki Reilla, Karen read about her and used the chackra training she wrote, she even talked to Shally about her, her teammate said it was impossible for her to be related to Reilla, otherwise, someone would have told her about it. 'Like hell they would' a tear dropped on Karen's cheek, she wiped it off quickly, before anyone could notice, "I promised I'd never cry again" she said to herself.

"it doesn't change our objective, let's get moving" Tack said, it was something his mother taught him, Sakura was in the same team as Sasuke and Karen's father, ' sometimes things can get rough and emotional, never allow it to get you, if you do, then you'll all break apart, keep your eyes about what's here and now, don't confuse the mission with your personal feelings' that was what she said, and his father agreed, the mission came first.

"you're right, we really should start moving" Karen glared outside, she clenched her hands to fists, every feeling of loneliness she ever had, all focused in her palm, every time she went back to an empty house, every day she was lost and when she came back she' saw nobody noticed, every bit of pain and despair that ever crossed her heart. She struck the wall with her hand, "stand up, everybody, our plan just changed, we're going at full speed, I lead and you follow" she said.

Hob breathed in relief, the news about Reilla and Neji were shocking enough to make Karen forget about the fact they were holding out some information from her, "she is better off dealing with her family than with that kid" he said to himself.

Doro was thinking the same thing, but his superior sense of hearing did tell him that Karen's meeting with her family wouldn't go very peacefully, it wasn't a fist out of boredom or impatience, it was more of a fist out of pure rage.

-----Chapter 12 - The Leaf Reunites – end-------

I hoped you liked this chapter, I guess you can say that things start to heat up from now on, and you don't how much!

Anyway, shout outs (!), not too much, but I will probably continue ranting in them..

Shadowcrimianl:

I had a history test today, I hope it went well… your guesses are close, and even right, but not exactly, you're missing one important element that says everything…

Synaptix:

What I meant in 'father dating daughter' was that if Naraku is Naruto's reincarnation then Karen would have to be Hinata's reincarnation, cuz if she isn't then there's no point in her (seeing how the reincarnation plot would take all the spotlight), but if she is, it's still that Naruto (as Naraku) is dating Karen, who's his daughter, and that would be sick and pointless … confused? Didn't I tell you that there'll be plot twists every chapter? Don't worry, I'll do a wide explanation when it's finished… but here's a hint, since I started writing this story before I published the ending of the prequel, I sprayed hints and connecting points in both stories, so if you look out for them, you'll understand the plot much better. Of course, I'm just using this as an excuse to make you read my story again, but hell, I'm bored and I'm suffering from a need to attention.

Hattuteline:

You didn't leave me! Yay, I'm so happy! Just kidding, but it's nice to see you reviewing again… I would also want to make the chapters longer, but I don't know when I'll have time to write, or if I'll have anything to write, so I'm trying to keep myself a safety net of a few chapters, so I won't need to put up bad chapters, and you wouldn't have to wait too long for a chapter…

However, I can promise that my next stories will have longer chapters, I hope you like inuyasha, cuz I've started two stories for that section..

See you all next week!