Naruto opened his eyes and sighed. He had made no progress in the maze the past three days. He'd basically just wandered around talking to the girl in his head. He had taken to calling her Alien because it bugged her to no end, and he figured it was at least one thing he had over his mind's unwelcome guest. He looked around. He was right where he had left off the previous night. He sighed again. "Can't you ever let me actually sleep?" Her voice came out of nowhere as always.

"I am sorry your body is suffering from this. I don't mean to cause you harm, but we are running out of time." Naruto frowned.

"Did it ever occur to you that this all might go faster if you actually gave me a straight answer for once and told me exactly what's going on Alien?"

She let out what sounded like some indication of displeasure at the nickname. "Of all the names in the world you…ugh…nevermind. I already told you I can't help you. You must find the way yourself or my efforts will be for nothing."

Naruto slammed his fist into one of the walls around him. "Why the hell should I care whether your efforts come to anything? I'm sick because of you! I wake up in the mornings and my chakra is almost gone from trying to get through whatever this maze is you put in my head! Speaking of which, can you ease up on all the cryptic images? My head feels like it's going to split in half!"

"Even if I wanted to I couldn't."

"And again I ask why the hell not?"

"And again I say because I'm not the one that put them or anything else going on in your mind here except myself."

"You make no sense!"

"And you're a fool! So where does that leave us?"

Naruto rubbed his head in frustration. He couldn't deal with any of this anymore. He got up shakily on his feet and began walking around. If there was one thing he agreed with Alien on, it was that he needed to figure out this maze fast. He began walking again. There was no direction anymore. All he saw was a bunch of walls that led different ways with weird symbols on them.

Naruto stopped. He looked at the wall in front of him, blinked. Nope he hadn't been imagining things. The wall was adorned with strange symbols as black as ink consisting of many different shapes and sizes. They wound around the walls like ivy. It was almost as if they were part of the maze itself. Naruto was shaken by them. He was almost 100% sure none of the symbols had been on those walls before tonight. "Alien!" he yelled trying to get her attention. "Hey Alien! What are all these symbols?"

"Argh! My aching head! I told you not to yell. I can hear you just fine as is!"

"Your aching head?!" he countered. "I'm the one with the maze and weird images assaulting my brain!"

She didn't spare him a comment about his head. "I was wondering when you were going to notice them. They're seals."

Naruto cocked his head to the side. If the maze had seals it explained why the path was so hard to navigate. He looked closer at the symbols to see if he could name a few, but he was surprised to find that they were all foreign to him. "They don't look like any seals I've ever seen." he stated. Alien scoffed "To be fair," she said. "I don't think you've actually seen that many seals in the first place. Besides, it would be extremely worrisome if you had recognized them. They aren't from this world. They're part of a set of symbols belonging to the West Gate and the Bridge's principle called alchemy."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. He stammered out the words. "Westah…gaatah? Brijah? Al…kay…may? What in the world are you talking about?"

Alien sighed. "You know if you don't open your mind a bit more soon you won't get any better and then where will we be? It's not like I actually want to do this."

"Then get out!" Naruto yelled. He was sure if he could see her she'd be rolling her eyes at him.

"Not everything is as simple as it seems Naruto." He grumbled a curse under his breath.

Frustrated, Naruto continued through the maze silently. As much as he hated to admit it, on some level Naruto realized he had gotten used to the girl being in his head. Her chakra was powerful and foreboding, but it didn't feel evil. Besides, aside from the maze she hadn't expressly done anything except talk to him. Naruto sat down criss- cross and looked at the floor. "Hey, Alien!" he called. She sighed in exasperation. "Yes, Naruto?" She asked irritably. He looked up at where he thought her physical appearance could be in his mindscape.

"Why are you trying to help me?" he asked. "What am I to you?"

"…That's complicated."

Naruto cursed and threw his hands into the air. "You're so confusing!" he yelled. "You say you want to help me, but you can't tell me anything helpful! How do I make this all stop when I don't even know what you want me to do?"

There was another pause in the air. He could feel her hold slipping as time was running out. She finally spoke after what seemed a long time. "Like I said Naruto, sometimes not everything in this world is so obvious. Sometimes things are happening around you that you aren't aware of and will never be aware of."

Naruto blinked and was awake is his hotel room. He winced at the pang that ran through his temple. He felt weak and drained. Alien was right about one thing. Whether it was his time of hers, he was definitely running out of it.

"Are you sure you're up for this Naruto?" Sakura asked him for the fifth time that morning. Naruto sighed. He was glad she was trying to be a good friend, but he felt like he was dragging an anchor around with all the energy the maze had zapped from him. "I'm fine Sakura. When we get home you can take me to the hospital and run a medical test on me or whatever if it makes you feel better, but for right now let's just go to the archives and get this over with." Sakura stared at him. "What?" he asked. "I've never heard you willingly volunteer to go to the hospital ever. I think Hell officially froze over." They stared at each other for a minute then busted out laughing. Kankuro, who was their guide for the day, glanced at them like they were both crazy.

The South Archives were in the outskirts of Sunagakere so they had to travel quite a distance to get there. Sakura spoke up after they had finished laughing. "So Kankuro, what was the extent of the damage to the actual facility?" Kankuro scoffed. "I would describe it, but you'll see for yourself soon enough. It's a sight to see is all I can say." The three had walked several more miles when the top of the facility came into view. Naruto inspected the section of the roof he could see. "It doesn't look that bad to me." he said. "Just wait until we get on the hill over here for the full view." replied Kankuro. When they finally got to the top of the hill he had mentioned Sakura and Naruto both gasped. The place might as well have been torn apart. The gears that worked the door were exposed. The top section of the east hall had caved in. Most noticeable was the west hall where there was almost no evidence left that a wall had been there, and some of the rooms were exposed. There were sand ninja everywhere trying to repair and guard the now exposed sections of the facility. "Told you it was a sight." said Kankuro.

Naruto and Sakura stared at the inside. It looked even worse than the outside. The ceiling looked like the rest of it would cave in at any moment. Kankuro spoke up. "Two of the guards were stationed at the scroll room in the north west hall. They were about to change shifts guarding the room when this boy just materialized out of nowhere. They said he froze for a second and stared at them, and they attacked once they realized he had a weapon. They tried to subdue him but he used his weapon, a dagger tail of all things, to deflect the shurikin back at them. They got distracted when a bomb shook the building. That's when the east hall caved in. Another blast blew out the wall beside them. He slipped out of their grasp and they signaled for reinforcements. They chased him all the way to the southwest hall where two of the other puppet masters stepped in. They were using poison darts, and he was having trouble dodging their attacks. They almost had him when the wall next to them suddenly caved in on top of them. Leito was sure he hit the guy with one of the darts, but the wall gave him enough time to escape through a window and run off into the woods. We sent search parties out for the body, but they haven't turned up anything yet and I doubt they will. It's obvious he wasn't here alone."He stopped them in front of the scroll room. "This is where the boy materialized." Naruto looked at the area whistled. You could see evidence of the fight Kankuro described by the dagger and shuriken marks on the remainder of the walls.

"What was in here that they wanted so badly?" Kankuro looked at him and shook his head.

"This is one of the scroll rooms, but we have no idea which one he was after."

Naruto glared. "Can't you guess from the other things they've stolen so far?"

Kankuro sighed in exasperation. "We already told you in the report. Most of the things they take are semi-meaningless scrolls we have copies of elsewhere. It's been the same for the other villages as well."

Sakura's gaze shifted quickly from the debris. "What do you mean the other villages?" she asked. Kankuro blinked in surprise. "I thought you were informed." Naruto narrowed his eyes. "No one said anything about other villages. We thought Sunagakure was the only one they had robbed. You're telling us there are others?" Kankuro nodded. "We've had confirmation from the other Kages that they already visited Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure." Sakura scowled. "If they've done that much damage why weren't the other nations informed right away?" she asked. Kankuro shrugged as if it were no big deal. "This is the first time they've caused this much damage. The Kages didn't want to cause any unrest or make their nation look weak since the thefts seemed small scale."

Sakura looked troubled and went back to examining the scroll room door, eventually entering the room. Naruto, convinced she didn't need him at the moment, went to examine the blown out wall. The debris from the wall was all on the outside of the building. It looked like something Sasuke's chidori or one of Deidara's bombs would do. "Hey Kankuro!" he called. "Did any of the guards find dud bombs in any of the debris?" Kankuro inclined his head toward him. "Yeah we found one over by the East wall. It was a metal, chakra activated bomb. Why?"

Naruto pointed at the destroyed wall. "All the pieces except for the ones from the roof are outside the building." Kankuro looked at the wall and blinked in surprise. "You're right. I guess I didn't notice with the pieces from the ceiling being on the inside." By this time Sakura had come out of the scroll room. "There was nothing pre-set up in there to indicate which scroll to steal. So the thief must've known exactly what he was looking for. Can we see the dud bomb you found?" Kankuro nodded and scurried off the get the bomb. Sakura came to stand by Naruto and surveyed the wall. "Looks like something Sasuke's Chidori would do doesn't it?"

Naruto looked at his teammates face. It looked sad, as if thinking of some far off memory. "You still love him don't you?" he asked. Sakura looked up startled then looked back down. "It doesn't matter how I feel. That's not the mission right now." Naruto dropped the subject, a little hurt, and looked up to see Kankuro coming with the dud bomb. Sakura took it from him and examined it in awe. It had a metal exterior, and the center was pulsating with a dull blue light. Kankuro spoke up. "It looked like it had been hidden in the cracks of the walls. Our tech expert, Carl, figured out there was a button that made it shrink. Whoever built the thing certainly knew what they were doing."

Sakura examined it in awe and poked it a few times. "Have you been able to tell if the signature might have belonged to Airi or Tia? The reports did say they've been missing from the prison for two weeks." Kankuro scratched the back of his head. "Carl's been working on it with Havoc, but the things a tough little bugger to crack. Whoever made it is a genius." Naruto and Kankuro both gaped at Sakura as she threw the bomb to the ground and slammed her foot over it. "Sakura!" Naruto cried. Sakura ignored him picking up the bomb. She handed it back to a shocked Kankuro. "Now it's open." She stated bluntly. Naruto sweat dropped. "Um, Sakura? Exactly what were you planning to do if the bomb exploded?" She stared. "Huh." She said. "I didn't think about that."

Kankuro sweat dropped at the two idiots in front of him. Sakura handed the core of the bomb to him. "Have you set up interrogations yet?" Kankuro nodded. Naruto looked as clueless as usual. "Why does he need to set up interrogations?" Sakura sighed. "Naruto, someone had to have access to the facility to set up the bombs in here." Understanding dawned over Naruto's face. "Oh ok. So we just have to figure out which workers have been at every facility right? What's so special about the bomb then?" Kankuro rolled his eyes at the blonde. "Many of the guards and workers that work in the archives constantly rotate between the five buildings. We can narrow it down to who was on duty each night, but the chakra will tell us who it is or at least who's been in contact with the person. I need to inform…"

He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Sakura felt it too and they both took a defensive stance. Naruto looked confused and whipped his head around looking for the threat. Kankuro frowned. What was with him today? Sakura took action first and threw her kunai hard. It hit a tree and Kankuro spotted movement. Just as he was about to spring the signature was gone. Kankuro stiffened in surprise, and after a few minutes relaxed. He looked at Sakura. "You felt it too?" he asked. She nodded. He sighed. "This isn't good." Naruto looked perplexed. "Will somebody please tell me what's going on?" the blonde annoyingly demanded. He didn't know how the leaf put up with that kid sometimes. Sakura looked at her distraught teammate. "There was a faint spike of chakra out there in the woods. Someone was watching us. Probably has been since we got here. Maybe longer. The chakra signature disappeared though." Kankuro sighed. "Either way whoever it was is gone now, and there's no telling how much they heard." The three stared with worry out into the trees.