Okay, so here's chapter one! Enjoy, and I apologize if I take too long to update in the future, I will do my best! A new character will be introduced in this chapter, please treat her kindly!

Naruto led his friends through the woods with ease. He had spent much of his free time here, before the stupid jounin had found out about it. Apparently, these woods were off limits. In his opinion, they were just being stupid. Seriously! He went here all the time and he'd never once ran into anything dangerous, they were just hiding something from him. But then again, that's why they were here. Gai seemed to be soooo afraid of the big bad forest that the genin decided to have a little fun with him. Naruto had personally crashed Sakura and the girls' slumber party to ensure the success of this endeavor. The guys even came along, because whether or not they liked to be in any way associated with Naruto, they DID share his curiosity. He grinned as he thought of all the secrets that could be hiding at this very moment, just waiting for the great Naruto to uncover them! He snickered at their futile attempts to keep things from him.

"Dobe, would you stop giggling and find something already?" Sasuke looked at him with bored expression on his face. These guys had dragged him out of bed and into this forest and it had better be worth it. All the genin had split themselves into two groups so that they covered more ground and still had enough people together to be safe. Naruto's group had Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, Hinata, and Kiba. The other group had Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, Tenten, and Rock Lee. It worked out somehow, although Ino was being quite annoting about not getting to be in a group with Sasuke. They had decided to keep it simple by leaving people in their three man teams.

"Aw, shut up Sasuke-teme! Like you could do any better!" Stupid Sasuke, he thought he was just soooo much better than everyone else. He hated that guy! And Sakura fauned over him, too! Some guys had all the luck.

"Man, Sasuke-san's right! This is booring. Jeez, Naruto, can't you do something useful for once?" Kiba smirked at the class clown. Man he was such an idiot, he probably got them lost. Lucky for them Akamaru and he knew the way back! That'd show him just who was the better ninja. Tch, a ninja who got lost in the woods! What a joke!

Naruto's eyebrow twitched. Stupid Kiba.

"Hey, Hinata-chan!" Naruto ignored the 'bog-breath' and decided to find a better way to find something cool.

"A-ano... Y-yes, Naruto-kun?" Her words came out in broken fragments and cheeks grew hot. She always stuttered when she spoke to Naruto.

"Think you can use your Byakugan or something? You know, look for something interesting that Gai sensei is so afraid of, Heh!"

Hinata nodded, concentrating. She forced her eyes open, her gaze cutting through the air itself. Kilometer after kilometer in only a few seconds. Trees, trees, trees. All she could see was forest.

"Oh!" The others gathered around her expectantly as she gauged the distance between their group and the strange object. It was very cleverly hidden, and would most likely have never been found if not for her extremely potent sight. There was a small stone doorway carved into a boulder. It was completely covered in vines, and had essentially become part of the scenery. One more thing was strange about it, though. The vines, the trees, moss. They were all dead.

"What is it, Hinata? Huh? Come on, don't leave us in the dark!" Naruto's eyes gleamed with excitement. What did she find? What could it be? He couldn't even begin to guess, but couldn't wait to find out!!

"It's... It's a door... Of s-some kind. L-like a passage way, or s-something... All the plants around it... Th-they're all dead..." Hinata returned her sight to normal, but was feeling slightly uneasy. She had come because Naruto wanted them to, he was so excited about it... But, they really shouldn't be there, Gai sensei had said so...

"Kyaaa! You're AWESOME HINATA-CHAAAN!" He hugged her briskly, and went on to gloat to the others.

"Did ya hear that Sakura-chan? I was right! There IS something here!" He grinned broadly, anything to make Sakura impressed.

"Jeez, Naruto-kun, don't jump the gun, we don't even know if it IS anything yet." She crossed her arms and closed her eyes in scorn of him, while peeking out at Sasuke with one eye to see if he was watching.

"Aw, whatever! Let's just go. Lead the way Hinata-chan!" Hinata, who was still recovering from Naruto's welcome invasion of her personal space, shook her head and awkwardly started to make the path. Several minutes had gone by, and several more. The distance was not so great; however, cutting back the various weeks and other flora was more time consuming. Completely ignoring the fact that leaving such an obvious trail of cut plants was very un-ninja like, they managed to make their way to their destination.

The door was indeed old, and was actually a separate piece from the stone it was set in. The door was made to look as if individual bricks had been melded together, but it was actually carved out of one slab of stone, most likely originating from the bolder itself. There was no handle, and seemingly no mechanism to allow one to open or close the door.

"We're here, but... How are we supposed to open this thing? Great job, Naruto-kun, NOW what're we gunna do?" Naruto hung his head in disappointment at Sakura's cruel remark, but refused to give up so easily. He laughed it off and examined the wall from top to bottom, scampering around and looking somewhat like a monkey. That's what probably earned his next crude comment.

"Oi, Naru-saru, you missed something." Sasuke's pun on Naruto's name rhyming with 'monkey' or saru, only made him more mad when Sasuke showed everyone the small indent in the side of the door.

"Obviously, someone's supposed to pull here and slide the door to the side. The boulder must have a hollow spot for the door to fit in. It hasn't been opened in a long time though, there are vines growing at the base." It was the most obvious thing in the world, Naruto was such an idiot.

"You're so smart Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed, reminding some of the other genin of a pig. They kept their opinions to themselves in the favor of surviving, however.

"Grr... Let's just go in already!" Stupid Sasuke, always having to be the center of attention! He pulled on the wall, unable to budge it an inch. Only when all the genin worked together were they able to move the door out of the way, allowing them passage into the chamber. There was a long staircase leading straight down. It didn't go down too far, though. For the most part, the tunnel was only about six feet deep. Silently, the group of young ninja filed into the dark room. The air was musky, and stale. They passed by little plants growing up out of the cracks in the stone floor, but they were just like the ones outside. There was only one path, but it turned at sharp angles, like an elaborate maze with only one path and no branches coming off. Everyone could hear each other breathing loudly, trying to get the meager amount of oxygen they could out of the air.

"Maybe... M-maybe we should g-go back. The air in here... The air i-is stale. We c-could--" She was cut off by Naruto's loud voice.

"We came this far! We're not going back until the end." Determination showed in his movements, but he panted heavily. It was a struggle for them all, just surviving in here for this short amount of time was difficult. No wonder everything was dead. The rest of the trip was shared in silence, but not quiet. Their footsteps echoed off the walls, their heartbeats abnormally loud. The only sign of life in the whole place was their own labored breath. Without warning, Akamaru lept off of Kiba's head, barking and running down the hallway.

"Akamaru!" Kiba ran after him, leaving the others behind.

"Hey! Wait for us you big jerk! Man, what's his problem?" Then Naruto's face had a weird expression on it.

"Hey... Do you guys hear that?"

"Hear w-what, Naruto-kun?" Hinata stammered, looking at him with a worried expression.

"A... A song. Someone's singing..." He looked awed as he stared after where Kiba had ran off.

"I'm going on ahead!" He bolted just like Kiba, towards the darkness up ahead.

"Hey! Tch, well I don't hear ANYthing." Sakura pouted. She felt put off, and left out of the whole thing. Shino and Sasuke looked at the pathway with suspicion, and continued on ahead. The two kunoichi followed after them, Sakura calling after Sasuke and Hinata looking down at her feet. They arrived to see both boys staring incredulously at... A wall. A dead end, except not. There was a hole in the wall. And it had bars across it. Naruto was still convinced that he heard someone singing, so he called out.

"Hey! Anyone there?" A long silence followed his outburst, causing the others to look at him with disdain. Then...

"H-Hello? Is anyone there?" The weak voice was barely audible, as if unable to believe that they had heard someone.

"We're right here! Here!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. There was a PERSON down there! How could they survive in this place which spending minutes in had cause such discomfort.

"Ah! Please! Could you please get me out of here? Hello?" The voice was clearly feminine. Young and feminine and in distress. Nothing could get Naruto into action faster.

"Don't worry! We'll get you out!!" He turned to his peers, who seemed to be just as shocked as he was to find life in this desolate place. Shino nodded to Naruto and had his bugs check the wall for weak points, having them eat away at parts while the others dug into it with their kunai. They worked quickly and effectively. None of them could imagine how horrible it had to be to be locked up in there. How long had this girl been in there? It was amazing that she was still alive, let alone healthy enough to speak! It had originally been a door, so they worked around the edges and a spot near the ground. None of them could fit in, so Kiba sent Akamaru in to check if there was room for them to kick the door down without harming it's prisoner. The dog returned and Kiba affirmed that the room was quite big enough, and Naruto immediately threw himself at the door. It landed with a painfully loud crash and he rushed into the room. As the dust cleared, a form could be seen at the far end of the room. The girl was chained to the wall by a cuff on her neck, and two more on her wrists, making them stretched out across the wall, the rest of her hanging limply like a doll. Her head was hung, and a veil of auburn hair covered her features. Sasuke and Shino instantly set to work on breaking the chains. The metal cuffs would have to be remove with more specific tools later, when they got her out. Her arms dropped to the floor, and she finally raised her face to the young ninja. The expression that adorned her face was that of death, but when her eyes fell upon the blonde boy in front of her they blazed an unearthly green and there was no doubt that she was alive. Her eyes widened in shock, and she got up, barely supporting herself on her underused legs. She took a few staggered steps towards Naruto and fell to her knees, holding him in an embrace.

"Mother..."

Okay, so I left that off on kind of a cliffhanger, but don't hate me too much! It's just turned five in the morning, so I'm gunna try to go to sleep now. Insomnia, bad for me, good for the story, lol. Please review and let me know what you think so far!