Chapter 2: Sohei

…

"Burr…it's freezing here!" Naruto exclaimed through chattering teeth.

"I knew it, any village named Sohei, can't be any warm paradise." Sakura told him.

The group had just arrived in the village of Sohei, and they were standing in ankle-deep snow and even though it was the middle of the day, the town seemed completely deserted. There was not a soul in the street, it seemed like they were the only four in the whole town.

"This is creepy, is anyone even here?" Sakura questioned. No one answered her; they were all looking at the dark figure that was coming towards them.

Everyone hunched down a bit, and put their hands on their kunai just in case something happened. Suddenly the figure burst out from the foggy snow and fell, face-first at Kakashi's feet. They looked down and noticed that that it was a little girl, and they all let their guard down again.

The girl got up and brushed the snow off of her; she was young, probably about five-years old and only about as tall as Kakashi's knee. She also had sparkly blue eyes, and light brown hair that was up in braids, she looked up at them with starry eyes and said, "Are you the one's from Kohana Village to help us!"

Kakashi hunched down so that he was at eye-level with her, "Yes, we are." He said smiling.

The girl's eyes lit up, and she also smiled, "Okay well, I'm Sheena, I was sent to come get you, so follow me." She said, and then turned around and began walking away.

The four of them figured that she was telling the truth and that she was harmless, so they followed her. They walked for a while until they came to a big building on the right side of the road, and they followed Sheena inside.

They stood in the doorway and Sheena yelled, "Mommy, Daddy, the guests from Kohana are here!" Soon after she called for them, a tall, bulky man, and a short cheerful woman appeared from a room that was down the hallway.

"Hello, we are so happy to have you here, I'm Raine, and this is my husband Genma, and I see you've already met our daughter." Said the woman.

"Hi, I'm Kakashi, and these are my three students, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke."

"Well, hello everyone, throughout your stay here in the village, we've been appointed to let you stay here since this is the only inn in the town after all." Raine replied, "We haven't gotten many visitors lately, so it's nice to have you around."

"Ever since the killings have started right?" Sakura spoke up.

"Yes…people always used to come to the village all of the time to see the snow, so we were busy…but now the killing has started…"Genma replied.

"Hmm…I see, well tonight we'll just stay here and see what happens so we can prepare tomorrow." Kakashi proposed.

Everyone agreed, and was sent to their rooms.

…

Outside was complete darkness, it was probably about 2:00 in the morning, but no one could say for sure. Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi were all up in their rooms sleeping. Although Sasuke couldn't sleep, he was sitting on the window sill of his room, staring out onto the town. Everything was completely silent, the white snow was still steadily falling outside, and he was blankly staring at it, the pale moonlight illuminating his face. He had been up for hours staring outside, and waiting until the monster came to attack.

He was ready but he was also waiting for the sun to rise, according to Raine and Genma the attacks only happened at night, so he figured if the monster didn't attack, he could always sleep the next day. He knew that the sun would be up soon so he started to doze; confident that this killer wouldn't come…he was wrong.

All of the sudden an earth-shattering scream cam from down the hallway, he knew it right away…it was Sheena. He leaped to his feet with lightning quick speed, drew his kunai, and bolted out of his room in the direction of the scream. He heard the doors of his teammates opening behind him, but he was already halfway down the hall.

He reached Sheena's room and quickly opened the door, and slid inside. He froze completely in the doorway at what he saw. There was a dark figure glaring at him standing in Sheena's window, there were just two piercing red eyes staring at him, with Sheena wiggling fiercely under its arm. Even though it was only for a second before it jumped out of the window it felt to Sasuke as if his soul had been completely sucked from his body.

Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi appeared behind Sasuke out of breath and tired. "S-Sasuke did y-you see it?" Naruto asked, gasping for air.

Sasuke didn't answer, he was still stunned from what he had just seen, but all that remained was a permanent memory and white lacey curtains flapping in the wind.

End Chapter 2

Okay, so most of you are probably saying, "O-M-G, WTF dOOd, why did she leave us on a cliff-hanger!" Well I have my reasons, but I guess you'll just have to wait until the next chapter! Also, you're probably wondering why Sasuke is so freaked out by this (I know right Sasuke never gets scared of anything). Well, that's another thing that will be explained in the next chapter. So, lots of stuff going on next chapter, in other words, don't die before the next one!

Blue-mage865