Chapter 25:

Serafall heard voices.

She didn't know who they belong to, where they are coming from, nor, what they are talking about. But she did hear them.

She was able to recognize three different tones of voices, two female and one male. They were talking about something, and as the seconds were passing, she could slowly start to understand them.

The last thing Serafall remembers before that moment, is Deidara detonating himself. Then there was a dome of destructive chakra coming toward her to send her into oblivion, and finally, before the darkness consumed her, she saw a bluish light.

She didn't know what that light was, nor where it came from. She also didn't know where she is at the moment, nor did she know if she was alive or dead.

If she was to try and guess, then she would say that she is dead. Why? Because she didn't feel anything. Not even a little bit of pain. She would guess that, if she was caught in that explosion, and by some miracle she survived, she would have felt a lot of pain. Instead… there is nothing. Not even a pain from a simple scratch. That is a pretty good reason to say that, she is in fact, dead.

But then, there are the voices. If she can hear them, could that mean that she is alive, or, does that mean that she is dead, and that she is in a presence of some higher-level being.

Serafall was never a big believer in higher powers. She was always the kind of person who believed in what she can see, feel and touch, and believing in god or some other higher being, is imposable, since you can neither see it, feel it, nor touch it for that matter.

At that point in time, Serafall felt that she can open her eyes, and look around herself, but she decided to stay still, lying on, what felt like grass, and keep her eyes closed. She decided to listen to what the voices around her are talking about. That will allow her to guess where she was, and what to do in case she is still alive, and what she CAN do, in case she is dead.

"How is Juvia?" Serafall heard a female voice she didn't know, ask about someone else, who she also, didn't know.

Naruto looked toward Saeko and said. "She will be fine. I will guess that she will need a few days to completely recover from being frozen while in her liquid form."

Serafall heard a male voice, and once she heard him, she wondered who this Juvia is, and how can she have a liquid form. Then, she remembered about the Hōzuki Clan and their ability to liquefy their body, and guessed that Juvia must be one of them.

This brought the questions of, where she is, who these people are, why is she with them, and most importantly, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

"What about the others?" Fu asked, while Serafall continued to listen. She wondered, who the others are.

"Well, that one guy from Team 7 is dead," Naruto said. "I assume he didn't survive being frozen by Serafall's jutsu. As for the others, somehow they all survived, and they will be fine. I will say though, they were EXTREMLY lucky."

"Yeah," Saeko agreed. "Not only did they survive being frozen, but the shockwave from Deidara's detonation broke them out from the ice trap, and allowed them to run away just outside of the blast radius. If that's not luck, then I don't know what is.

"That other guy though. We can assume Serafall's jutsu killed him, as he would have run away with the others if he survived that."

"I agree," Naruto said, before he looked at Serafall. "You can open your eyes now," he said to Serafall. "I know that you are awake."

Serafall stayed silent and unmoving for a few moments, before she decided to just get up, as there was no reason to pretend any more. She will not find anything this way since they already know that she is awake.

She opened her eyes, and saw three pair of eyes looking at her. One belonged to a very beautiful girl with long hair and wearing very little clothing, especially on her upper body.

The other person looking at her is the blonde man, and Serafall caught herself blushing the moment her eyes landed on Naruto. She will only admit in her head, that he is the most handsome and good-looking man she has ever seen.

The third person surprised Serafall. It was obviously a girl, based on the clothing and the body, but her face can't be seen because of the weird mask she was wearing. Serafall has never seen a mask like that, and it made her wonder.

Serafall got up from her lying position, and set on her ass. Normally, she would have tried to stand up completely, but she felt weak for some reason. She assumed that her battle against Deidara took more out of her then she thought.

She looked around, and saw Chiyo, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura lying on the ground next to each other, while Sasori was away from them, with a seal attached to his forehead. He was unmoving, but because of the seal, and from what she heard earlier, Serafall knew that he was still alive. Seeing that Sai is not there, she now knew who it was, that died from her jutsu.

Serafall thought about Sai's death, and after a minute, realized that she didn't care that he has died. She didn't know him, and had nothing personally against him, but as he is a Leaf ninja, she didn't care that he has died. She also wouldn't have cared if Kakashi and Sasuke died as well. She would have preferred it if they did. As for Sakura and Chiyo. Well, Chiyo is a Sand Elder, and she is glad that she is alive. Sakura. She didn't know the girl that well, and since she was a Leaf kunoichi, she normally wouldn't have cared if she died as well. But, Sakura did save Kankuro, who is Gaara's brother. She also appeared to be a nice girl. Much better person then Kakashi, Sasuke and Sai were, and as such, she was ok that Sakura is still alive.

Serafall looked back at Naruto and fought off a blush, before she asked. "Who are you three? And what happened?"

"Well, my name is Alessandro," Naruto said his fake name. "These two are Saeko and Fu," Naruto pointed at each girl as he said their names. "We are bounty hunters," Naruto lied.

Serafall rose her eyebrows in surprise. Before she could ask again, what happened, Naruto spoke again.

"We have been following you and the others ever since you left the Sand Village," Naruto's words made Serafall go wide-eyed in disbelief, as she couldn't believe that none in the group she was with, noticed that they are being followed. She could blame herself as well, but she had no skill in sensing, so she couldn't' have noticed them, but that none of the others noticed them as well… that is troublesome.

"We came to the Sand after we heard what happened, in order to find out where Sasori and Deidara went to after they grabbed the Kazekage," Naruto said. "We planned to get the information and then go after them for their bounties. But when we got there, and found out that there is a team from the Leaf already there, and then you as well… well, we decided to just follow you all and see what happens."

Serafall thought about what she heard, and after a minute, she asked. "Was it you who took out that fake Itachi?"

Naruto nodded. "It was me," Naruto said. "It wasn't very hard. It was over in a flesh."

Serafall rose her eyebrows at this, and wondered, how powerful those three are. She did know that they must be very powerful if they are going after the S-Rank ninja like Sasori and Deidara.

"What about that attack, which destroyed the boulder at the entrance to the cavern and broke the seal?" Serafall asked again.

"That one was also me," Naruto said with a smile. "But don't ask how I did it. It's a secret."

Serafall decided not to press, so she just nodded, and then looked at the group of unconscious ninja. "What happened to them, and what happened to me? How did I survive that explosion?"

"Your jutsu was so wide spread that it froze all those fighting in the cavern," Naruto said. "When Deidara detonated himself, the shockwave was the first which got to them, and broke them out of the ice, and gave them enough time to run away from the blast. They were lucky that the blast radius was 10km and the cave was about 9km from you, so they had barely enough time to escape to safety. But even then, they were damaged greatly from the battle against Sasori, and the run didn't help them in getting better.

"It would seem, that all of them except that Sai fellow, were strong enough to survive your jutsu, and were only encased in ice and not frozen to the bone. Sai though, wasn't. He didn't escape from that cave, and there is probably nothing left of him after the shockwave most likely completely destroyed him.

"They were all brought here by Fu, after I sensed where they run off to. She found them unconscious, and brought them here."

Serafall nodded, satisfied with the explanation. "What about that other girl?" Serafall pointed at Juvia, who was lying on the ground, passed out just like the others.

Naruto sighed. "She's with us. I sent her to watch that battle in the cave, and then tell me what happened. Juvia is from the Hōzuki Clan, so she has the ability to turn into water and blend it. She did that and observed the battle, but was unfortunately frozen by your jutsu. As she has Water Body, she is particularly weak against lightning attacks and ice attacks, and while she was strong enough to survive being frozen, it did damage her a lot being frozen like that." Serafall lowered her head, and apologized under her chin, while blushing in embarrassment.

"She was also unfrozen by the shockwave, but she wasn't able to run away from the blast. Luckily for her, she was able to use what remaining strength she had left, to liquefy her body once again, and then escape from the blast, underground. She passed out right after the explosion was over and she came back out."

"I'm sorry," Serafall apologized again. "I never meant to hurt anyone innocent."

"It's ok," Naruto said. "You were in the middle of the battle, and you didn't know that there was anyone around you. I'm assuming you also didn't think that your jutsu will reach all the way to the cavern," Serafall nodded, "well then, don't blame yourself. I'm sure Juvia will be fine and she will forget it."

Serafall smiled and thanked Naruto.

"Oh, and as for why you are alive," Naruto spoke again. "That's because I created a barrier in front of you before the explosion got to you. That protected you from Deidara's jutsu. Unfortunately, you passed out. I'm assuming because you were both tired, and because you were scared, which, I will admit, standing in front of an explosion like that, and knowing that you can't escape, is scary as all hell, so don't feel bad about it."

"Thank you for saving me," Serafall bowed her head. She was very grateful that she was saved, and that she can go back to her sister and Koyuki. The moment she remembered Koyuki, she remembered why she was there in the first place, and remembered Gaara and the fact that he is dead. It made her sigh. "What happened to Gaara?"

"He's behind you," Naruto said, making Serafall look behind her, and notice Gaara's corpse, lying on the grass. He looked undamaged, but that didn't matter, as he was dead.

"Damn it," Serafall swore! "I failed my mission! Princess Koyuki sent me to save Gaara, and I failed. Now she is going to be sad that her friend is dead."

Naruto, Saeko and Fu looked at Serafall, and felt bad for the girl and for Gaara, especially Fu and Naruto, as they used to be jinchūriki just like Gaara, and knew how it felt to be hated by everyone. Though, the fact that there was someone who cared about Gaara, made them feel happy for him, but also sad that he is now dead.

Unlike with Fu, Gaara's soul has already left this world, so there is nothing Naruto can do to bring him back, and that made him angry, because he saw Gaara as a friend.

"It's not your fault," Naruto said. "The only ones at fault for his death are the Akatsuki, and no one else."

Serafall didn't say anything, and just kept looking at Gaara. After few minutes of silence, she sighed and asked.

"How were you able to save me and pull him out of the explosion, at the same time?" Serafall wanted to know that, as it seemed a bit unbelievable.

"Oh… well, Fu grabbed Gaara and along with Saeko jumped behind you, while I jumped in front of you all and created a barrier which shielded us all from the explosion." Naruto explained.

Serafall looked at Naruto curiously. "That must have been one hell of a barrier?"

Naruto smirked. "It sure was," he said. "Unfortunately, it's something only I can do, which means that I can't teach it to anyone."

"So it's like a bloodline," Serafall questioned?

Naruto thought about it for a moment, and said. "In a way, I guess it can be considered a bloodline. But it's different than normal bloodlines."

Serafall wanted to ask more, but she didn't know the guy, and she doubted he would just tell her even if she asked, so she settled for what she already learned. "What now?" She asked.

"Now, you will stay here and wait for the others to wake up," Naruto said. "After that, it's up to you all to decide what to do. As for me and my team. We are leaving immediately. We will be taking Sasori with us, though."

"What," Serafall yelled? "Why?"

"Why what?" Naruto asked back.

"Why are you leaving," Serafall asked? "And why are YOU taking Sasori?"

"It was Fu who subdued Sasori," Naruto said. "As such, we have the right to do with him whatever we want.

"We are leaving because there is nothing left for us to do any longer. Deidara is dead. Sasori is captured, and unfortunately, Gaara is dead. I may be powerful and skilled, but I can't do anything to reverse death. As such, it is for the best for us to leave, before the others wake up and start causing trouble. I really don't feel like dealing with those imbeciles," Naruto looked toward Sasuke and Kakashi.

Serafall noticed at whom Naruto was looking at, and had to agree with him that Sasuke and Kakashi truly were imbeciles and hot headed. They will most definitely try something the moment they hear that it was these group of three that saved them all, and that they are taking Sasori with them since they are the ones who subdued him, and as such, can take him if they want to.

Serafall watched as Naruto picked up Juvia, and gave her piggyback ride, as she was passed out and can't walk. Fu grabbed Sasori, and tossed him over her right shoulder like a sack of potatoes, showing her physical strength. She and Saeko then joined Naruto, and they were about to leave, but before they did, Naruto looked at Serafall once again and said.

"If you ever want to fight strong opponents in order to improve your skills, then come visit me in the Land of Whirlpools." Naruto said, much to Serafall's shock.

"B-But, that place has been destroyed decades ago." Serafall said, as she knew the history of the Land of Whirlpools and the Uzumaki Clan.

Naruto nodded. "It was. But after it was destroyed, it was left empty and no one went there anymore, so I decided to build my own country there," Serafall's jaw dropped on the ground when she heard that Naruto is building a whole country. "It's one of the reasons that we are doing bounty hunting. In order to get money for the construction."

"You cannot possibly get enough money to build a whole country, just by hunting down missing-nin." Serafall was shocked.

"No," Naruto said. "But bounty hunting is only one way we are collecting money. There are other things we do as well. But never mind that. As I said. You are free to come anytime you like. In fact. You can even bring Princess Koyuki. We might be able to make some sort of an alliance."

Not waiting to hear Serafall's response, Naruto vanished from sight in an instant, followed by Saeko and Fu. Serafall stayed behind, watching at an empty stop, where less than a second ago, three people were standing.

"The hell was that?" Serafall wondered.