Chapter five

"Hyugaa Hinata, Aburame Shino and Inazuka Kiba your mission is to track and retrieve Hatake Kakashi and Maito Gai. Uchiha Shisui will be your team captain in this mission." Tsunade briefed them on their mission.

She was having second thoughts on adding Naruto on the list, but the Uchiha had gestured her to say it now.

"And Namikaze Naruto." She added.

The three were baffled, did they Kakashi and Gai finally found her? They all thought. They knew that the woman had a bad habit of drinking, but it was obvious that the woman wasn't under the influence of alcohol.

"Lady hokage, if this mission involves Naru-hime then this mission is an s class?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, precisely. This mission is under classified as you may know tensions are beginning to grow inside the village." She said.

Kiba turned his eyes on Shisui, every ninja in the village can sense that the police force is growing restless with the civilian's distrust.

"Shisui will brief the mission further, I need you to prepare and meet at the gates in two hours. Dismiss." She ordered.

"Hai" they responded in unison before dispersing on their separate ways.

'Shisui, Kakashi, Gai and Itachi, the rest is up to you.' she prayed.

_page break_

The ship will arrive at the port the next day, Naruto was getting impatient and bored. All she did was stare at the sea and watched Gai sensei vomit and pass out due to sea sickness.

Kakashi kept staring at her like and in her mind, she knew that he was thinking of illicit things about her. She wasn't that naïve, knew that men had their urges. Kakashi maybe a pervert and the girl had a curvy body, but that wasn't in his mind.

The girl was hiding something, there's no way she wasn't Naruto. She had Minato's eyes and hair, Kushina's body, nose, lips and facial frame. Not to mention she's as loud as Kushina.

He tried sniffing her scent to jog his memory but he couldn't, it's been years and her scent must have altered. Even his ninja hounds would say it's futile.

"Seriously, Stop gawking at me it's weird." She told him directly.

His day dreaming got interrupted and he was back to his senses.

"Sorry." He chuckled whilst scratching his neck.

Naruto just scoffed at him, and turned away.

She really needed to something with his creepy stares. She was losing her mind, feeling uneasy all the time not to mention she's so bored. There was nothing to do on that ship, Kyubii isn't helping either. He'd always shrugged her off telling her he wants to sleep. That she had to stop pestering him and find other things to do.

"Menma?" Kakshi asked.

"Huh?" she retorted.

'Maybe, I'll try doing this slow.' He thought.

"You never told me your family name." he said.

'That's because I don't know.' She thought.

Before she could she heard a splash from the waters, she was startled to see a group of dolphins skipping on the water. The dolphins made their snickering sounds, Naruto was in awe as she looked at them.

It was her first time to see dolphins, and never in her life would she think that she could see this.

Kakashi notice the way she smiled as she watched them,

"Kashi-kun, look these gold fish are pretty." Naru-hime's voice rang inside his mind.

For a moment there he thought that Menma had shrunk into Naru-hime image.

He snapped himself back to reality and looked away from her. He watched the dolphins skip and cheer on the waters.

'Maybe, I am losing my mind.' He thought as he made a quick glance on the girl.

_Page break_

Sound village, Orochimaru's main base

Orochimaru laid out a folded hanky on his work table, then he pulled out a small scroll from his drawer. He opened the scroll and placed it on his table, he unfolded the hanky and lifted a long golden strand of hair. He smiled deviously as he looked at the hair.

'Naru-hime, mommy and granny Tsunade are not there to sing you to dream land. 'he thought ominously.

He doesn't hate her, since he wanted to dissect her. Not her, but wants inside her. He wanted to test this jutsu on the girl, it's a type of genjutsu that can be placed even if that person is far. Though he didn't like the idea of the girl dying since he wanted to obtain Kyubbii from her.

But Orochimaru wanted to test something, and what better way than to have fun with Minato's beloved daughter.

He placed the hair on the seal that was written on the center of the scroll, and performed his hand seals.

"Let's just hope that you'll make it out alive, it will be such pity that a precious weapon like you will die from a mere genjutsu." He chuckled as he looked at the seal illuminating.

At the boat in the sea,

Kakashi and Gai had stayed in one room, Gai was asleep on the top bunk. Probably from exhaustion with all that retching, Kakashi wasn't getting any sleep. Gai was snoring too loud and the thunderstorm was getting worse. The boat kept rocking and the loud thunder kept crashing.

He was worried about Naruto, for ninja's they could sleep in any condition since they were trained to do so. But as for a girl who know nothing of ninjutsu, she couldn't handle the situation well.

He heard the door creaked from the other, it was the room that Naruto was staying in. It was getting and he wondered what could she be doing at this hour. So, he jumped out of his bed and went to check on the girl. He saw that the door was flung open and he saw Naruto walking in zig zags as if she was drunk.

He recalled that there was no alcohol stored in the ship, he followed the girl and saw that her eye lids were shut. Unknown to him she was under a genjutsu by Orochimaru, she was dreaming of something that seemed real.

In her dreamscape she was with Kyubbii, they weren't in the sewers like what her mindscape has always been and Kyubbii wasn't in his cage.

'Where are we?' she asked him as she looked around.

They were at a meadow, it was like summer time. Butterflies were everywhere and the grasses were so green. Kyubbii wasn't gigantic, he was like the size of a small puppy.

'I don't know, and I don't like this form.' He scoffed as he looked at his paws and tails.

'Stop, I think it suits you.' Naruto giggled at him.

Kyubbii just made a growling noise, Naruto just kept giggling at him.

On the other side,

"Menma!" Kakashi yelled at the girl.

But she didn't respond, Gai wasn't waking up either and the thunder is getting louder.

Kakashi saw the girl walked towards the stairs, the boat was rocking fast. He chased her and grabbed her by the waist, but Naruto slapped her on the face unconsciously.

The boat made another sudden move and the two fell on the ground, Naruto stood up and continued walking like a drunkard.

Dreamscape,

"Naruto!" a man shouted.

She followed that voice and Kyubbii run beside her. She run on the top of the small hill, she looked down to see who was calling her.

She saw another wide green meadow; a blonde man and a red-haired woman caught her eye. The two were sitting on a mat that was laid on the grass, beside them was a large basket.

Naruto and Kyubbii quickly spring down, she was excited to go see those two. She couldn't see their faces clearly, but she had a gut feeling that these were parents.

The other side,

Naruto reached the top deck of the ship; the water was trashing on the deck. Kakshi froze when a wave almost washed her, it was a good thing that she landed on the posts.

The ship was out of balance, rocking like a cradle in the sea. The water was also rising and trashing on the deck.

'It will be hard to do water walking on this storm.' He thought.

His clothes were soaking wet, and so was Naruto's. He had to grabbed her quick before she does anything dangerous.

Dream scape,

Naruto was chasing the two figures; they were all laughing around even Kyubbii was joining in the fun. The two figures jumped on a blue lake and swam around.

She still couldn't see their faces clearly, the red-haired woman splashed water on Naruto and laughed. Naruto just laughed back at her.

"Come on dear, the water is fine." The woman cooed.

The other side,

Naruto climbed on the edge of the boat with her eyes closed, but she had a smile on her face. She was losing her balance and could almost fall in the water.

"No! Don't jump!" Kakshi yelled at her.

Dream scape,

"Come on dear." The woman gestured at Naruto.

The woman stretched out her hand on her leg, she looked up to see Naruto. Naruto was terrified at what she saw, the woman had green glowing eyes and sharp teeth. Her fingers had grown long and her nails were long and sharp. She could feel her nails pierce her skin.

"Aaahhh!" she screamed.

Kyubbii jumped at the woman only to be grabbed by the man.

The man eyes were glowing red and he had a scary grin on his face. He begun to strangle Kyubbii with his hands.

The man's face then spiraled and Naruto gasped at the sight.

"Naruto." The woman called out in a monstrous tone.

Naruto just screamed as the woman grabbed her by the leg.

The other side,

Kakashi pulled her away from the edge and held her down. She was screaming with her eyes shut, Kakashi the shook her realizing she was having a nightmare.

"Menma!" she shouted at her.

She didn't open her eyes, she kept screaming and crying.

This was no ordinary dream, it looked like she was stuck under some sort of genjutsu. He did what he knew could help, he concentrated his chakra on his palm. Then he pushed it on to her chest.

For a moment Naruto calmed down, Kakashi was relieved that she was released.

Naruto slowly opened her eyes and saw Kakashi on top of her. Without any thought she threw her arms on his neck and buried her face on his chest. Her sobs had shaken Kakashi whatever she saw it was beyond a dream. She was trembling, it was either from the cold nor her the nightmare that she witnessed.

Kakashi pulled her closer and run his hand on her golden hair.

"Shhh." He comforted.

"I nearly died." She sobbed.

"It was a dream." He said.

But he knew it wasn't he just couldn't bring himself to say it. The girl was already traumatized from her nightmare.

'Why would anyone put a genjutsu on a civilian?' he thought.

For a moment the storm had calm down, the ship returned to its balance. It was still raining but not too heavily like a few moments ago.

He carried the girl in bridal style, Naruto didn't protest and let him lift her that way. But something felt familiar, it was as if she had already experience something like this.

Being carried and protected by strong arms, the way he held her had a warm familiar feeling.

Kakshi felt something too, the way she snuggled on his chest without any anxiety. Like she relied on him with her life, the same way as his Naru-hime did.

'Who are you?' he thought as he looked at her.

_Page break_

"Captain, the scent has ended here." Kiba said.

Shisui stared at the large body of water, it was already night fall and they were standing at the port where the ship had sailed off.

'Damn it, Itachi just what did you do?' he thought as he bit his lip.

They had to wait the next morning, since there were no ships around the port. They had no lead which ship had sailed the three, and Itachi was no where to be seen nor contacted.

Shisui had to devise a plan quickly but having no further leads had place the hunt on a further strain.

Authors note;

Hello, my lovely readers. Was the chapter too confusing? It was hard writing the dream sequence. But I hope you were able to follow it. Please, leave a review. Each review gives me inspiration to continue the story. Till the next chapter guys, bye.