The place was a mess. There was a fire place that was caved it in the center of the room, on top of a wooden deck. A long hallway stretched out a few paces in front of the boys, on the far left wall was a set of stairs. Just north from the fireplace was also a old fashion door. A few rice paper screens were torn, though the door was in good shape. By the side of the stairs, a bookshelf lay torn apart; old books fallen all over the floor; starting to rotten into soil. Sakura released the boy's hands and took another step forward whispering. "Isn't anybody here?"
"Should we go inside?" she asked Naruto and Sasuke, turning around to a very frightening sight.
Naruto and Sasuke stood there; their bodies shaking, their eyes darting from side to side as if seeing some scary movie; "Naruto?…Sasuke? What's wrong?" Sakura shouted grabbing their hands.
Her world went black and white again, and though she wasn't moving, her perspective was as she was forced to move forward into the house. She also saw a few inhabitants.
A young woman glanced at her knowingly. "Masumi?" She questioned, the vision making her walk down a hall way the three of them had just seen.
"Where are you?" The girl questioned, a flashlight now in her hand that scanned over the house as she called out in a innocent tone.
However, as the perspective changed yet again to where Sakura couldn't see the girl, she heard the voice grow raspy. "Masumi….where did you-"
Sakura jumped as an image of twins hanging in a hallway flashed in her mind before it went back to the hallway. "I don't want to kill.." Sakura heard though she saw nothing as the vision made her grow closer to the end of the hall.
"The Lost Village." A whispering voice said as if standing behind her, though she couldn't jump, nor scream as the vision went on. Haunting voices and now flashes of images running through her mind.
"This thing is to dangerous!"
Sakura tried screamed as a image of a man appeared only three feet ahead of him. The man's face, legs, cloths,…whole body! He had huge cuts and gashes all over him; he turned and trudged down the hallway that now went at an angle. Again, twins hung in the hallway. Sakura could only stare on in horror, the only thing that she could do.
Again, the innocent woman's voice cried out. "Masumi…? Masumi…where are you?" The voice cried out as Sakura turned the corner that continued down the hallway.
"I don't wanna kill anymore." Sakura heard as she now neared the door at the end of the hallway.
"I don't want to kill anymore." A woman's voice hissed in her ear yet again.
The next thing Sakura saw would haunt her till she died. Flashes of the woman's death appeared as the bloodied man started to strangle the life from her; her eyes roll back into their sockets; and the black and white face of a young girl laughing insanely, wearing a kimono with corpses surrounding her.
"WHY!"
"No more!" Sakura screamed falling to the ground in a heap; tears flooding her eyes as she shook with shock.
Naruto and Sasuke had snapped out of the vision by this time to, both boys dropping to the ground and trying to get a grip on what they had just seen. Sasuke, the first to recover, looked over at his team mates. Sakura was huddled together, her limps tightly around her as her frightened, widened eyes stared down the hallway. Naruto was rubbing his arms, his eyes mirroring Sakura's as he looked over at the girl in pity. 'She shouldn't have seen that…'
Finally, the raven haired boy struggled to his feet, reminding himself that Kakashi was in danger before he looked over at Naruto and nodded for him to get up as well. The blonde staggered, but got to his feet, his eyes still looking like a deer in the headlights of a truck. Both boy's slowly made their way towards the pink haired ninja, whom whimpered lightly. "W-what was that?" she sobbed, gripping Sasuke's shirt suddenly, burying her face into his leg.
"I don't know…." Naruto whispered, answering for the boy whom seemed to be at a loss for words, "We don't know.."
Sasuke glanced up at the deck again, his eyes scanning the room before he kneeled down, allowing Sakura to embrace him. "Listen, I want you and Naruto to stay here and watch out for anything…I'm gonna check out the area."
"No you can't!" Sakura whimpered as Sasuke stood again.
"We can't leave Kakashi out there to die! Now until we get information he has to keep running!" The raven said firmly, prying the female's hands off of his shorts.
"He'd do the same for us Sakura-chan. And besides, the girl was searching for Masumi! The same guy we are! That means…" Naruto's voice died out.
"She died looking for him.." Sakura finished, shivering.
Sasuke nodded, turning back towards the deck. "From the way things look…yes. However, if we can gather information from them, perhaps we can find a way out."
Looking down at the wooden deck stairs now, the boy cautiously stepped on them, wondering if they were safe. To his relief, they were stable enough to hold his weight. "Sasuke-kun…don't go to far." Sakura whimpered as the raven made his way over to the fireplace. His eye's caught something white in the middle, and as he neared; he found a page of something. The paper wasn't made of rice paper like the rest of the books, and was decorated with a small design with the number one on the left hand corner. Picking the item up, he stuffed it in his backpack for later. Looking through the books, he couldn't decipher anything from them, they were to ripped up and moldy. Turning to his left from his position, he looked at the back wall where a small rice paper screen; one usually used for changing stood. Curiosity getting the better of him, the boy slowly made his way over; feeling two pairs of eyes on his back. Sakura and Naruto stood still, still kneeling by each other as they watched their comrade pull the screen over to reveal a door. Pausing at the handle, the boy took a deep breath before opening it. When he was certain nothing was going to come at him, he turned to look at the two huddled on the floor. "I'll be right back. You hear anything and you run for your lives." He commanded before stepping inside and closing the door.
Sakura clung to Naruto as he kept his eyes glued on the door. 'Sasuke-kun…' he thought absentmindedly. The two waited for what seemed like an eternity, however, they could wait no more as Sakura suddenly screamed. Across the room, on the bottom of the wooden stairs stood a man. He, like the woman, was see through and was slowly trudging towards the pair of ninja.
"Damn it! They've found us!" Naruto whispered, before slinging Sakura on his back and running out of the room, down the dirt hall. The hall branched off to the left and right at some point, though the boy kept running straight down the hall. "Shit!" The blonde cursed as the woman from before appeared only two inches away from his nose; her back to him.
"Masumi…I missed you…" The girl's raspy voice hissed as she walked down the hall and turned the corner.
Nervous about following the woman, Naruto made up his mind when he heard the spirit of the man from back in the deck behind him moan, "Twins…."
"I choose the woman!" Naruto screamed, running down the hall.
Turning the corner, he found no woman, but a door. Throwing it open, the boy fell out of exhaustion as the door slammed shut. Sakura covered the blondes mouth as they heard a moan outside the door. Both ninja shook as the spirit finally left from the door way, obviously content with finding something else. 'Sasuke…!' Naruto thought, ready to scramble to his feet after the ghost, though Sakura held him back. "Common…we have to search this area…Sasuke will be fine."
'I hope…'
Sasuke had rushed out of the current room after being chased by another spirit. This one had crawled out of a box in the closet of the secret room. Bent over to her waist, her long hair covered her face. The girl slowly walked towards the raven, causing Sasuke to take a few steps back. His eyes widened to saucers when the woman suddenly stood up right and rushed at him, her rotten flesh on her face causing him to gag as he ran out of the room. Now on the run, the boy ran across the deck in the adjacent room on the opposite side. Tearing open the door, he fell as some lose netting tangled his feet. Laying there for a moment to collect his sanity; the boy felt shiver's fly up his spine as a raspy voice called from behind him, "Why?"
Sasuke turned to his left, seeing a window that led outside, and the white figure of the woman walking past it. Biting his finger as to not faint on the spot, the younger Uchiha closed his eyes, imagining his brother laughing at his pitiful being at the moment. It was enough to keep the younger Uchiha going. Looking down, he found himself tangled in a green net. Taking a closer look, he noticed that he had the same one around his window. "This must have been…." Sasuke cut off his sentence as he stood to look around.
Besides the window, to his back was a trunk of kimono's. Deciding that boxes were unsafe at the moment; the boy headed towards the bedding on his left. Noticing another scrap of paper, he picked it up and threw it in his bag. He would read the pieces when he found the other two again. Leaning down, he touched the strange lump in the middle of the bed, his body freezing when he recognized the shape of a human arm. Falling backwards, the boy was quick to his feet when his thud had opened a small closet. The decayed paper had fallen back, revealing a small key in a shelf.
Unluckily for Sasuke though, he had to step around the bedding to reach for it. His pale finger tips touched the cold iron key as he made a grab for it. Slowly, but surely. Reaching, reaching; his body suddenly went numb and the boy let out a yelp as he felt something grab his ankle. "SAVE ME!" A voice hissed around him, causing the boy to collapse.
