For those of you who didn't read my description for this story very carefully. Yes this has OCs eventually. Also, I clearly say in the description that there are no pairings except for the ones I've established between my OCs. This is not a romance story, nor is romance something I intend to focus on predominately at any time in this story.

He was having the dream again. It was the same as usual. Just complete darkness with a ripple over the water as he walked. Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for the usual assault of images in his head. After a minute he frowned. Nothing happened. He opened his eyes. Everything was still. Deathly still. "Hey!" he called. "Is anybody there?!" His question we met with silence. Ok so maybe he was crazy and had just been hallucinating and made a bigger deal out of this than necessary? "HEY!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "ARE YOU THERE OR DID YOU JUST GET TIRED OF TORTURING ME?!" That's when he felt it.

Oh God he felt it. Massive amounts of chakra coming from everywhere. He hadn't wanted to throw up this bad since his first mission where they faced Zabuza. Suddenly the ground around him erupted. Walls shot up in every direction making him lose his balance and fall to the ground. When he looked up he realized he was fenced in on three sides and the walls that had sprung up from the ground had made a maze. "What the hell!" he yelled. This definitely wasn't any dream. Whoever was doing this was real, and they were inside his mind.

"Naruto." his blood froze. He could hear the voice very clearly. A lot more clearly than any of the other times he had been dreaming. He cursed. He began running, but it was useless. No matter where he ran or how many times he punched or kicked a wall it was useless. He even used his clone jutsu to try and find the exit, but they all got turned around. He deactivated the jutsu, whipped around, and punched the closest wall. He cursed again as the pain shot through his hand.

How in the world was he supposed to get out of here? Whoever this person was they had literally trapped him inside his own mind. He needed help as much as he hated to admit it. There was only that option left, and he thanked his lucky stars that at least he was in his own mind. "Hey, Kyuubi! Help me get the hell out of here!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. The fox didn't answer. "Wha…? Hey where are you? You're usually begging me to borrow your power so you can taunt me by now!" There was still no answer. It was then that Naruto realized exactly how much trouble he was in. He couldn't feel the evil fox's chakra at all. He could only feel the foreboding chakra of his intruder. "Are you done panicking?" the voice said scaring him and making him curse.

There were two things he could tell now that he hadn't been able to before. 1) The speaker was a woman. He had heard enough of Sakura's sarcasm to know that much. 2) Whoever it was had a freakin butt load of chakra at their disposal. He was nervous, but it was too late to back down now. The voice gave an exasperated sigh. "If you want to talk that's fine, but you don't have to yell. I can hear your big mouth just fine." Naruto glared at the air. "Who are you?!" He demanded. "Why are you in my head?!"

"You know who I am."

"The hell I do!"

"At least a part of you does…"

"What?"

"You haven't been wondering about all the images you've been seeing?"

"Why can't you just tell me since you seem to know so much about it?! And what was all that stuff about needing to hurry, and being out of time huh?!"

She didn't answer. Naruto gritted his teeth, and asked his next question carefully. "Where's the Kyubi? He's sealed inside me, so I know he's here. Why can't I feel his chakra?" "I would think you'd be happy to not be bothered by him for once." She said plainly. Naruto swore. "That's not what I asked you! Just answer the question." The voice sighed. "…To put it simply he's in a very deep sleep at the moment." Ok now Naruto was freaked out. She had put Kyuubi to sleep? How in the world had she accomplished that? This whole thing was getting weirder by the minute. "Why?" he asked uneasily. "I had to break apart the walls set around your mind enough to where I could properly talk to you. He was an obstacle so I temporarily sidelined him."

Naruto didn't like where this was going at all. She had broken down barriers in his mind? What did that even mean? Had she literally torn through a part of his subconscious to get in here? On top of that she had put Kyuubi to sleep. How in the world had she even accomplished that? This whole thing was getting weirder by the minute. "Why are you in my mind?" he asked dreading the answer.

"Because you lost something."

Well that was unexpected. "…What?"

"I can't explain further than that."

His anger flared up. "And why the **** not!?"

"If you really want to know you'll have to find the end of this maze."

"Wait a second you! What do you mean I have to find the end!? You're the one who created it! Can't you just tell me how to get out!?"

"I didn't create it, and the one who did doesn't live in this world. Either way you already know how to get through it on your own. Until you realize that I won't answer your questions. Call it fair trade."

He could feel her chakra slipping out of his mind. "Wait," he yelled. "I don't know what to do! What did I lose? I don't understand anything you're saying!"

"Sorry…out of time."

"Wait!" Naruto bolted upright in bed reaching for nothing. His pillow and sheets were drenched in sweat again. His head was burning like he had fever even though he knew he didn't. He looked out the window. The sun had already risen so Sakura would probably come to wake him up any minute. He got dressed and wandered around the kitchen in a daze. The troubling part of all of this was he knew the woman had been telling the truth. On some level, whether he wanted to admit it or not, he did feel like he knew her. Was he really missing something?

He had just finished his breakfast when Sakura knocked on the door. "Naruto," she called in her scary voice. "It's morning already! Get your lazy ass out of bed!" Naruto huffed in annoyance. She was so bipolar. One minute she was sweet, and then the next minute she was trying to pound his face in. He would never get girls. "It's open Sakura and my ass is already out of bed!" he yelled. She poked her head through the door in disbelief. "Seriously? What made you roll out of bed so early?" Naruto averted his eyes. "I had another nightmare." She gave him a concerned look. Naruto sweat dropped when he realized she had no intention of sitting down. "My house isn't diseased y'know. You can sit down instead of just standing awkwardly in the middle of the room." She gave him a distasteful look. "I will again remind you of the ramen bowl." Naruto rolled his eyes.

Sakura sat down across from him. "Naruto." She looked at him in confusion. "…What is it?" he asked. "Something on my face?" Sakura looked troubled. "Naruto, have you been doing extra training sessions or something?" Naruto was confused. "What? No. Why are you asking?" Sakura looked him in the eyes. "Shizune noticed it too when we were in the tent yesterday. Did you realize how much of your chakra reserve has been depleted?"

Naruto looked up at her in surprise. "No. I didn't." Naruto said blinking rapidly as he processed the new information.

Sakura was still staring at him. "Are you doing anything outside of our current assignment Shizune or I should know about?"

Naruto shook his head. Sakura made a hmmm noise and straightened up.

"Shizune got a reply from Gaara with the escaped prisoner's files. We should go."

"Ok," Naruto agreed quickly. "Just let me put this up then we'll go ok?"

His friend nodded and headed out the door ahead of him. He watched the water run as he realized why the woman kept telling him to hurry. The dreams were draining his chakra.

Naruto was in somewhat of a state of panic on the way to see Shizune. Should he tell Sakura what was going on? How could he tell anyone without sounding like a complete lunatic? He wondered if he would've even known how to tell pervy sage if he was still alive. He looked at his friend's back in front of him. "Sorry Sakura," he mentally apologized. "But I can't tell you until I figure out more about this person in my head." He could only pray she wouldn't kill him when she found out. Sakura dropped off where Tsunade's tent was and Naruto followed her inside.

Once they were both in the tent Shizune got up from her place by the comatose Hokage and greeted them. "I'm glad you both got here so quickly. I got a reply from Gaara last night. The messenger was pretty skittish. He said he felt like someone was following him. We need to exercise more caution with this mission than we have been. Here." She handed the envelope to Sakura. "You're not going to read it?" Naruto asked in surprise. Shizune looked at him with a serious expression. "Tsunade didn't trust Danzo before any of this happened and I don't trust him now. He always loathed her grandfather and Sarutobi's ways. I have every reason to think one of his men could be watching the Sand messengers. As Tsunade-sama's right hand woman, I'm the one that'll be monitored so the less I know the better." Naruto blinked and frowned. "I've been wondering for awhile now if that's why you didn't want Sai to help us with this mission." Shizune nodded. "I have no doubt of Sai's loyalty to you two as teammates, but he is still under Danzo's jurisdiction. He could make him do something even if he didn't want to. Now see what you find in those papers and report back to me later." "Hai Shizune." Sakura said.

She and Naruto exited the tent. Suddenly he felt his hair stand on end. He looked around feeling sure someone was watching him. He sighed. If he didn't catch up to Sakura quick she would probably leave him.

The spy watched the Kyuubi's container retreat. He was more observant then she had originally thought. She would have to be more careful in the future around him. The spy fled the tree reappearing in Danzo's office a short time later. Danzo looked away from the window he was positioned at to his pupil. "Report." He demanded "The Kyuubi's container and the princess's pupil were at Shizune-san's tent again. That's the third time now, and a sand-shinobi was at her tent last night."

Danzo narrowed his eyes. "So, Shizune and the Kazekage are doing something under my nose after all. I expected as much from a follower of Tsunade." The spy lifted her head with a hint of excitement. "Shall I assemble for an attack sir, or an assassination?" She grinned behind the Anbu mask framed by her flaming red hair as Danzo eyed her. "No. It will look suspicious if someone is killed before I am named the 6th Hokage. For now keep watching Shizune and the Sand messenger. You may leave." The girl called Yore hesitated. "Danzo-sama if I may be so bold," she said. Danzo looked at her. "Go on." "The Kyuubi container, Naruto, has a strange chakra signature coming from him. A red one." Danzo sniffed. "That would be the Kyuubi's chakra. It is a normal occurrence for the boy." Her eyes narrowed behind her mask. "With all due respect Danzo-sama this was not the Kyuubi's chakra. You are one of the few in this organization aware of my origin to this world." She held up her arm pushing up the sleeve hiding the intricate rose marking in the middle of it. Danzo gazed at the reminder. "You have been a faithful student as well Yore, but please do get to the point." "I think she's had contact with the boy." She hissed.

Danzo raised a critical eyebrow. He walked over and condescendingly patted the girl on the head. "Forgive me my dear, but you must be mistaken. She is dead. Madara helped make sure of that after the incident two years ago." Yore glared and slapped his hand away. "You are a fool to trust Madara's word. I know her aura. It's in my instinct to know." Danzo thought for a minute. "Very well. Your judgment has seldom failed me before. I don't understand the laws of your bloody world, but do what you must." Yore bowed low. "Hai Danzo-sama. I will not fail you."

She was gone from the room in a split second. Trees and buildings whizzed past her as she tracked the Kyuubi's container and Tsunade's pupil. Yore watched the two from a perch on the left side of the building. The girl grew still in thought. She knew the dragon had taken actions against her, but she had perceived the vessel too weakened for her to have actually accomplished anything. If she wasn't mistaken though, she had believed a lie for two years. "Now boy," she said to Naruto's silhouette in the window. "What kind of dreams have you been having?"

"Ugh," groaned Naruto. "More paperwork." Sakura just sat down across from him and dumped the files out of the bag. She began sifting through them and handed him a big stack. After a while they had managed a system where all the documents to do with different info were stacked into neat piles. Most of the stuff was a layout and blue prints of the prison, the cell that was broken into, and the witness accounts from the guards. They sifted through half the stack before they found what they were looking for. "Here it is," said Sakura. She pulled the papers from the stack and raised her eyebrows. "You have got to be kidding me." She said in annoyance. "What is it?" asked Naruto grabbing for the papers. Sakura handed them to him. "They've had two female prisoners missing from the prison for over two weeks." Naruto's eyes widened. "Wow. They must have really bad security. What kind of idiots don't know their own prisoners are missing for two weeks?" Sakura shook her head. "The sand security is some of the best there is. There has to be something these people are doing that everyone is missing. We should look at the witness accounts later." Naruto nodded. "What does it say about the prisoners that escaped?" Sakura pulled a few papers. Naruto looked over her shoulder as she read the document:

Name: Tia Imakashi

Age: 17

Height: 5'4

Eyes: Blue

Skin: Tan

Hair: Blonde, medium length

Rank: Chunin, Missing-Nin

Chakra Type: Primary- wind, Secondary-Earth

Info: Inducted as spy for Sunagakure at age 13. Subject appointed as an assassin for the Sishin at age 15. She defected from the village after a failed mission in the Land of Earth, (details classified) and was branded a missing nin at age 16. Subject was caught with cell mate after an explosion they caused over by the Mukare Border Outpost.

Naruto wrinkled his nose in confusion. "What's a Sishin?" He asked. Sakura looked at the document thoughtfully. "I read about them when I was doing research at the Sand a few months ago," she said. "The Sishin were a group of seven assasins a lot like the seven swordsman of Kirigakure except they were all female. They were disbanded by the previous Kazekage after the failed mission in Iwagakure mentioned here. Since one of them became a missing-nin he thought it was too risky to keep the group together in case any of the others tried to go rouge as well." Naruto frowned. "Weird. What about the other girl?" Sakura pulled the other prisoners file:

Name: Airi (No last name.)

Age: 15 (estimated)

Height: 5'1

Eyes: Blue

Skin: Brown

Hair: Brown

Rank: Chunin (estimated. subject could possibly still be genin.), possibly Missing-Nin

Chakra Type: Primary- Earth, Secondary- Water

Info: The subject appears to be from Kumogakure, but could possibly be from Kirigakure. Network still processing all possible classified missing-nin data from the databases at this time.

Sakura frowned. "It looks like she escaped before they could get a solid background check." Naruto scoffed. "An assassin and some weird girl they have no information about are locked in their prison, and they actually lose track of them for two weeks? Talk about pathetic security. Gaara needs to appoint some new people." Sakura ignored him focusing on the paper. Naruto looked at her questioningly. "What's up?" Sakura shuffled around the documents and suddenly slammed them down in frustration making him jump. "Ugh!" she yelled. "This doesn't make any sense!" Naruto thought it smart at the moment to back a couple of steps away before he spoke. "What doesn't make sense?" Sakura faced him with a frown. "All the accounts about the guards getting knocked out, all the missing objects that no one seems to know about, an assassin and a strange girl sprung from jail? None of these things are adding up! We have to be missing something."

She slammed her head down on the table with a frustrated sigh. Naruto watched her and cautiously sat back down. He grabbed a stack of the papers not sure what else to do. The pile he picked up was the guard's eye witness accounts. Most of it was the same as before. They came, knocked them out, nothing left behind. Most of the guards had been out for days. Naruto wrinkled his brow. Why did that sound so familiar? He flashed back suddenly to when Sasuke had been unconscious for a few days after being hit with Itachi's genjutsu. "Hey Sakura," he said. She lifted her head off the table. "Hn?" He shoved the paper in her direction. "Would a genjutsu make the guards not remember who attacked them or what was taken?" Sakura was suddenly alert. "Now that you mention it…" She got up from her seat and retrieved the other papers. Her eyes widened as she flipped through them again. "I think your right. That would explain why there was no evidence left behind. It's a rare genjutsu that could do that, but it would explain how they got in and out so easily."

Both of them grew quiet at the prospect of a genjutsu user robbing Kumogakure's archives. "This is going to make things a lot harder isn't it?" Sakura nodded. "We need to tell Shizune-sama right away."