I thank everyone who's reviewed thus far. I'm very sorry for the late update, but I've started high school (and a new program with advanced work) so I'm very busy these days. I'll try to update every now and then, so please don't loose all confidence in this story! If I don't get a chance to update quickly, I'll still be trying to plot out further where the story will go. Thank you for reading this far. :D

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the anime/manga "Naruto"; Masashi Kishimoto owns "Naruto". Any trademarks, characters, storylines, plots, etc. from the anime/manga "Naruto" belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I would also like to say that ratings, page formats, chapter scroll bars, etc., (this goes for all of my stories and this one as well) that my stories are using are all thanks to this host website. "Wikipedia", the online lookup, also helped me with jutsus and moves that the characters use, and for information about the characters themselves. I don't own the name "Wikipedia" either.

---Chapter 8---

---Drawn Blinds---

---Normal POV---

He didn't know how long it had been since he had last been conscious. Gaara's thickly rimmed eyelids fluttered open, and blinked a few times to clear away the fuzziness. He was lying in complete darkness, but he could see sharper than he ever could before.

A never-ending, high-pitched sound hummed from somewhere beside him. He had to rely on will alone to turn his head. It was too difficult to do much else. He stared at the machine he had seen before he had gone unconscious. It was the heart meter, but this time the screen only showed a flat, green line. The high-pitched sound that was matched to beep when his heart beat was a continuous held note now.

His non-existent brows furrowed, and he stared at it, waiting for a good five seconds for it to beep. Nothing happened on the screen, nor did the note waver even once.

'I'm dead, apparently. Great.' Gaara thought skeptically. He looked for some sort of wire that connected to the machines. There were none.

A figure made itself present; the same one that had paralyzed him earlier.

"It worked." The figure stared at the screen expressionlessly. Gaara forced himself to speak, no matter how difficult it was.

"It's not plugged in."

"It doesn't need a plug. It runs on dark chakra." Gaara furrowed his non-existent brows again in his confusion. He focused on the other with a glare.

"I'm not dead."

The figure picked up Gaara's hand with its own icy one, and lifted it. He unfolded Gaara's unmoving fingers and put them up to his neck, where his jugular should've been beating. And it wasn't.

Gaara's eyes widened as he literally felt no pulse against his own neck.

"This has to be a hallucination," Gaara muttered, scowling up at the face of the other, his patience already running thin. A headband was tied around the figure's forehead; two long, black bangs fell on either side of the face. The figure's eyes were hollow and devoid of any life signs.

"It's not." The translucent voice was serious. Within a split second after speaking, the figure disappeared.

Gaara was left stunned that he was dead and alive at the same time.

---

"You're…" Naruto's eyes were wide with extreme shock. He couldn't believe what he was thinking. "You're…"

"You're… Haku!"

The figure said nothing as it walked back to Naruto's side, as if it was on rewind.

It leaned slightly over Naruto's form, coldly looking the blonde in the eyes with his own lifeless ones.

It was a quiet moment, before the accused one spoke.

"Who?"

"You're Haku! Don't you even know your own name?!" Naruto exclaimed, one hundred percent sure that the identity was true.

"I don't know who you are talking about, nor do I care." He backed up to leave. He disappeared without a trace.

Naruto looked around. He made sure that 'Haku' was gone. 'I need to get out of here.' He was shivering; he felt so very cold. Only then was he aware that he was actually on some sort of mattress. He swung his legs over the side, and found the ground close by. His limbs were heavy; they felt like they had very heavy weights attached to them. He glared at the wires and tubes that attached him to the machines, and grimaced when he ripped them away; although, he was quite surprised when it hurt much less than he thought it would. Naruto staggered to a standing position, and squinted into the darkness. He saw rows upon rows of empty mattresses and machines. Looking further, he saw the outline of an exit. He stumbled past all of the weird equipment, and towards the door. It felt like he was running through water, and he nearly tripped. His weight was swung forward, and he opened the steel door with a bang. He caught himself with it, and sighed.

'I really wish I knew how to teleport,' He whined mentally, noting the deep incline in the tunnel. He stumbled down the dip, catching himself on fang-like rocks that stuck out of the ground and ceiling. Two pathways emerged from the one he was currently on. Without really thinking about it, the blonde fell towards the left one, and continued on that track.

Sooner than he had expected, he came to an entrance to another room. He slowed down and stood to the side of the doorway, trying to be unnoticeable. 'What is this place?'

The jumpsuit clad ninja walked as quietly as he could in the state he was in. He didn't want to catch anyone's attention. He peered around, nearly forgetting to breathe while he took in his surroundings.

There were contraptions of all sorts; pieces of equipment of all sizes were placed randomly. Energy seemed to fill the air, exactly like the buzz that he had felt before the ninjas had come in to drag him away from his teammates. The room seemed to be of the utmost importance.

Before he knew what had happened, he was flung forwards violently. He caught himself before his head hit the floor, scraping his palms and the material over his knees. He tried to get up. He was kicked in the ribs, and flung sideways. A growl began to build up in his throat, and he forced himself to stand. He curled his fist into a ball and managed to connect it with the attacker's face. Naruto caught a glimpse of the ninja before it disappeared, seemingly into thin air.

The figure seemed so very familiar. A huge, heavy sword in the shape of a rectangle hoisted across his back, tall, adult figure, short, dark hair with a headband tied around his head, bandages covering half of his face, a demonic look in his eyes…

He stumbled onward, hardly noticing the soreness in his back and ribs, where he had been attacked. Was there any pain? He didn't feel any. Naruto had tried to identify the ninja, but couldn't remember anyone or their name. The information seemed to be there, but he couldn't quite recall it… 'This is really screwed up.' He thought, trying to form sentences clearly through his mental haze. 'It's like my sense of feeling is becoming duller, but my vision, hearing, and smelling senses are becoming sharper. And I think I'm loosing my memory.'

He collapsed on the floor, unable to move his limbs, for they were too heavy. His eyelids wanted to close, and he nearly complied with them, when his attention was caught by another type of giant fissure in the ground that he had come close to falling into.

A jolt went up his spine, as he realized how close he had been to walking straight over the fissure. He would've fallen in, and he knew he still wouldn't have noticed. The blonde could not deny what his eyes told him, though, and his reality was brought back.

He noticed conveyor belts, metal pulleys, leavers, and instruments of all sorts gathered near the fissure on both sides. Molten liquid flowed in the bottom of the large fjord-like exposure, but the magma wasn't red. It was dark, as if consumed by evil energy. Naruto could hardly grasp this concept, nor could he think about it with his scrambled thoughts.

The fox boy pushed himself up, forcing himself onwards, no matter how much energy he felt like he didn't have. He glanced around with his glazed, blue eyes, wondering why he didn't see all of this before. Was he really that blind? It was actually the complete opposite…

The machines were fully functional, all of them stationed in specific points; mostly around numerous fissures and cracks, some drilling into the ground. Dark, bowl-shaped metal was attached onto the end of a pulley-and-leaver type machine, and a ninja threw black bands into it tirelessly while another stood on the other side of the crack, waiting. They looked like zombies; repeating the same actions over and over again, not once speaking. Once it was filled, it was lowered down, into the black, pulsating magma far below. It was brought back up, the dark liquid dripping through small holes in the metal; it was almost like a strainer.

It swung to the side, and the contents were dumped onto a conveyor belt, which carried the metal bands away to another station. The machine swung back, ready to be filled. The ninja that had been waiting began to fill it up with more bands began to do that action, while the other one stood immobile this time.

'What are they doing?' Naruto squinted at them, as if he could see the answer by doing that. He tried to think about it. He looked at the bands that were being loaded into the machine, and at the bands moving along the conveyor. Naruto blinked, and suddenly he saw a slight difference that made complete sense to him.

The magma gave the bands their supernatural energy and power. The ones that were pulled along the belt had a certain luster, a certain pulse; the bands that were still to absorb the magma's energy had none of these characteristics.

He was surprised that he could see the difference, and thanked his enhanced vision. A plan formed in his mind, and he watched the two closest ninja carefully as he began to walk towards the inactive bands. He didn't know how he would pull off his plan; he didn't even know how it would work, exactly. After a while, he reached the end of the fissure, and crossed over the side, beginning to weave his way around other machines. He saw a pile of inactive bands lumped in a random location, probably for later use, and decided that getting some as soon as possible would be a good idea.

Once he reached the pile, he opened all of his pockets, and tried to stuff some bands inside them. His pockets, however, were not big enough, and he growled. Why did they have to make them so big, anyways? Annoyed, he unzipped his jacket and began to place the rings inside. Once he had at least six, he zipped it back up, and walked behind one of the machines to sit.

Once he was seated on the ground, he rolled up his sleeves and began to tug furiously at the rings. He stopped after a moment, realizing that he didn't have the strength to continue doing that. It wasn't working, as far as he could tell. How could he replace the active rings with the inactive rings if he couldn't even get them off?

He sighed, closing his eyes, and he leant his head against the back of the machine.

'Kyuubi..?'

There was silence for a moment, and then a ferocious growl echoed within his head.

'Why are you bothering me?'

'I need your help. These bands won't come off my arms. They won't budge. Do you have any idea how to get them off?'

Naruto heard a sigh, mentally watching the power in the demon's eyes grow. 'Sheer force alone will do nothing for you.'

The teen was about to say something back to the fox demon, when he noticed that the rings on his arms were beginning to glow red around the edges. He frowned, confused, when the light spread down both of his arms. He realized it was Kyuubi's demonic chakra.

'What are you doing?'

'Think about it. When they were put on you, they adjusted to fit your arms. If you build up a physical, strong wall of chakra between the rings and your arms, they will expand again. But you needed my power to do that. Only a very powerful ninja or a demon would be able to exert that strength of chakra and make it into a physical form.'

Naruto was a bit taken back by the Kyuubi's logic, and that it was actually helping him.

Almost immediately, the rings expanded, and he flung them off. His arms stopped glowing.

Suddenly, he couldn't breathe, and he felt like a chunk of ice. He gasped for air, but he couldn't move. His thoughts became tangled like a ball of yarn, and his eyes began to prickle as black fog covered his vision. He fell backwards, hitting the floor. His form was frozen; his clouded eyes still open. His face was pale and lifeless, a blank expression plastered onto it.

---

Sakura sighed. She was repetitively blinking, trying to keep her tears from seeping out of her eyes. She didn't want to cry in front of Sasuke. What would he think of her then?

She was terribly afraid for Naruto. She had grown to like the blonde as a friend nowadays, even though he was still annoying. She felt bad for picking on him and ignoring him in the past, when they had first met. And now… she may never see him again, and she had never apologized to him.

A drop rolled from each of her eyes, and she quickly swept them away with her hand, hoping that the raven-haired boy wouldn't notice her behaviour.

"Sakura…" Sasuke sighed, looking up from the sheet. "What's on your mind?"

"Oh, n-nothing." She sniffled, trying to stop her shoulders from shivering. So, Sasuke noticed… 'Isn't that a good thing that he's paying attention to you?!' Inner Sakura spoke up, but the outer Sakura blocked her out.

"You have to be crying for a reason." He said, glancing over at her from the paper in his hand. "Spill it. It's not like I have anybody else here to gossip to about what you're going to say."

The pink-haired girl realized that he had a point, and sighed again. "It's just… I'm scared of what's going to happen to Naruto. To all of us…"

There was silence, and Sakura felt her heart sink. He probably just wanted to make fun of her once she spilt her feelings.

"Being honest, I am too." She looked up at him with her vibrant green, watery eyes. He was looking at the map again, calmly letting his eyes scan over it.

"Y-you are?" She knew it was silly, because anybody would be scared out of their pants in the situation of being kidnapped, but… Sasuke? She had never imagined him to be fearful of anything. Sakura knew that it was a foolish thought, and tried to erase it from her mind.

"Yeah." He replied, running his hand through the right side of his bangs. "Don't go telling other people I said that. I have a reputation to keep."

She waved her hands back and forth in front of her nervously, as if to emphasize what she was about to say. "D-don't worry, I won't!" At least she felt a little better now, actually talking to someone. Still, she worried for Naruto. Sakura had been hit with a feeling not too long ago that something bad had happened to her friend… And she hoped it was just a feeling.

---

A redheaded figure sat on the side of a bed, head hung low. Gaara had managed to swing his legs over and actually sit, but it was hard to do much else. Even lifting his head took too much effort at the moment. His limbs felt so heavy; it was as if they were made out of complete steel, and as though he had run for a few hours consecutively with them like that.

He couldn't budge. He felt like he was frozen to the cot in which he was lying on. Thoughts swirled his head, some making sense, some not. How much time had passed since he had gotten up? The vacant-eyed boy had no idea. After a while, he felt some energy returning to him. 'I guess I just needed time.' He was about to stand, when a figure entered the giant room filled with medical machines.

"Good. You're awake. The Yorukage wants to see you." The same male that had paralyzed him now appeared before him, waiting for the red-head to follow.

Gaara didn't seem to notice himself stand, or walk. He followed the older teen. He didn't even look at his surroundings; it was almost like he was following against his will.

The two entered another room. It was the same, gigantic place where they had been brought the first time they were here; deep fissures running with black lava were carved into the ground of the incredibly enormous cave.

They came to the first gigantic crack in the ground. There were no bridges connecting the two sides together. The other ninja knelt for a minute, and jumped right over the abyss, landing on the other side. Gaara watched him through a slight haze in his vision, and without thinking, knelt. As if he were a spring, he jumped, and his feet landed on solid rock again. The two continued on.

They jumped over numerous fissures and cracks. Gaara hadn't noticed when buildings began to pop up. It wasn't big, like Suna or Konoha; it was very small. The building designs weren't like those on the surface; it seemed somehow… different, somehow darker. Maybe it was just the atmosphere. Gaara's mind blocked out further thought against his will, and he zoned out like a zombie again.

Before he realized it, he was in another spacious room. There were numerous statues and random, ancient-looking things sprawled across the place. Candles were in nearly every space that they could fit; all bearing purplish-black flame, which brought a dark light to the room.

He and the older teen stood, immobile. Three others were standing frozen in front of a desk.

The Yorukage sat behind the desk, staring at them all with his completely black eyes.

"Yondaime... Karura… Zabuza…" The Yondaime turned his head slowly to look at the silent figure beside Gaara. "Haku. Once the boy named 'Naruto' wakes, and all of his chakra has turned into dark chakra, we will begin the tests. Understood?" The figures all spoke in unison with dead voices. "Yes." He dismissed them with a wave of his hand, and all of them were gone within the blink of an eye. The boy named "Haku" was no longer standing beside him.

Gaara's feet carried him to stand in front of the desk. He stared at the one named the Yorukage.

A malicious smirk crossed its face. The Yorukage seemed to pull four black rings from nowhere, and handed them to Gaara, who put one on each leg, one around his neck, and another one on his dominant hand. "I have an assignment for you." It spoke in a chilling, malevolent voice. "You are going to take a trip. Unfortunately, your siblings aren't 'prepared' well enough yet to go on missions, so you're going to have to do this by yourself."

---

A blonde, long-haired woman walked through the Hidden Leaf Village gate, stretching. "Wow, what a long trip that was!" She said, cracking her back. "Thank Kami it's over." She slung her bag back over her shoulder, continuing into Konoha.

The guards at the gate stared at her, confused, but she didn't notice, as she was too happy to be home. Humming to herself, some people passing bowed politely, while others, giving her confused stares, bowed also.

This time, she noticed the glances, and continued to her office, brushing them off. She went up to her office, waving at Shizune, who was at one of the receptionists' desks.

"I'm back, Shizune-chan!" She sang happily. She began to slow down when she noticed the slightly scared look in her friend's eyes.

"Welcome back, Hokage-Sama," The dark-haired woman replied, nervousness in her voice.

"Is there something wrong, Shizune-chan?" Tsunade's happiness was replaced with worry.

"It's just…" She exhaled, and inhaled, closing her eyes. "You just left…"

"What do you mean 'I just left'?"

"You just left on your trip ten minutes ago; to go to that other village you needed to negotiate with."

"What are you talking about? I left two weeks ago!" Tsunade was confused, but she could feel a doomed sensation coming over her, along with realization. "Well did 'I' do anything important?"

"Err… You sent Team Seven on a long assignment a few days ago." Shizune said, opening her eyes slightly. "If I may, Hokage-Sama…" She put a hand over her face. "I think everyone has been serving an impostor."

Tsunade's eyes were wide, and her heart was beating wildly. How could they confuse her with someone else? She ran into her office; her notes, books, scrolls, and assignment papers were in a similar fashion as the way she left it.

The blonde woman thought carefully, trying to think of something that would make it clear whether there was an impostor or not. "Aha!" She clapped her hands together with her genius, and ran behind her desk. She yanked open a drawer, and held up an entirely full bottle of sake.

Shizune moaned, a hand covering her face again. There was no way there would be a full bottle of sake in the real Tsunade's presence. "So there was an impostor…"

Tsunade suddenly stiffened, slamming the bottle of sake on her desk. She began to form hand signs. "Shizune, watch the office, okay? I have some tracking to do." Her friend nodded, and Tsunade disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

She reappeared on the rooftop, looking frantically around the city. It was too high to see anybody clearly, so she began to jump between rooftops.

Going as fast as she was able to, she searched the whole village in a short amount of time. Panting for breath, she ran through the gates, the guards officially confused with two Tsunades running around.

'I can probably catch up to that person. Hopefully they haven't changed forms yet…' Tsunade was going so fast, she was just a blur. Her training as a Hokage really paid off.

She saw someone in the distance, running through the forest; not as fast as she was, though. Going closer, the blonde saw a copy of her running.

She jumped onto tree branches, and once she was as far as her copy, she jumped down, barricading it.

"Who the hell are you, copycat?" Tsunade growled; she was ready to fight if need be.

The copy of Tsunade stared back, and in a puff of smoke, changed into a pale, lifeless ninja with black bands running around its limbs. It changed into a bird, and flew away immediately.

Tsunade ground her teeth angrily, before forming hand signs and disappearing back to Konoha.

Shizune jumped as the office door burst open. A huffing Hokage stormed in, and took the bottle of sake into her hands, uncorking it. She drank from it eagerly, before slamming it back down.

"Get all of the Leaf Teams in here, including the Jounins in charge of them. Now." Shizune bowed at the request and was off.

About ten minutes later, many Genin were cramming into the office, as well as their team leaders. Tsunade hollered for silence, and every one of them tried to bow in respect without bonking one another in the process.

"Listen up!" Tsunade said loudly. "We have a huge crisis on our hands." The seriousness in her voice was unbelievable.

She held her head in her hands as she spoke. "I left to negotiate with the Kazekage about two weeks ago. Shizune tells me that there was an impostor taking over my place, pretending to be me, while I was gone. Apparently, I sent Team Seven out on a long journey to Sunagakure. Now, when I was talking with the Kazekage, he told me that there was something suspicious happening in a not well known region. He told me something was happening there that is planning to take over Konohagakure. Yet, I don't see how he knows all of this. So, since I sent Team Seven to Sunagakure, I have a feeling that they're somehow caught up in this." She stopped to breathe, and then began again. "I didn't believe him at first, but now it makes sense. The four of them may be in great danger now, as are all of us, so I am assigning each and every one of you to an S-rank mission."

Excitement, fear, and anxiety swirled throughout the room. They were only Genin, yet they were being assigned such an assignment? The few Jounin in the room also looked surprised. It wasn't every day that an S-rank mission popped up out of nowhere.

"The reason why I am assigning this mission to you Genin is because I find that you all possess special qualities and powers individually that will be very useful. I hope you all understand the urgency this situation holds. This could turn into a war. I am planning to send about half of all Konoha ninja to help you, divided into time periods which I will not reveal now. I personally will be joining you with this mission because it is of the utmost importance, but not right away." Tsunade continued her speed-talk, trying to finish her explanation and mission plan so that they could leave.

Once she was finished, she dismissed them and drank some more sake.

'What a mess this has turned out to be.' She thought to herself, sighing.

---

A day had passed, and the evening sky spanned over the desert. A large group of ninja sat. The Jounin were clumped together in one area, looking at a map, pointing to the region in which Tsunade had mentioned.

"I'm… So… HUNGRY!" Choji cried, arms wrapped around his middle in hunger.

"Oh, don't you ever stop thinking about your stomach? We just ate!" Ino scolded, glaring at her teammate. Shikamaru sighed. "You guys are so troublesome. Won't you ever stop bickering?"

Kiba patted Akamaru's head. Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru were annoying the hell out of each other. Again. He sighed; was there anything new with that? After a moment, Akamaru began to shake, and climbed into Kiba's shirt, scared.

"Huh? What's wrong, Akamaru?" He looked worriedly at his friend, who was shivering badly.

"A-Akamaru? A-are you okay?" Hinata stuttered, noticing the dog's weird behaviour. The blank-eyed girl remembered the last time the dog was so scared, which was in the Forest of Death.

Shino, also noticing Akamaru's weird behaviour, was remembering the same thing as Hinata. "You don't think something strong is coming, do you?" He asked monotonously, pushing his sunglasses higher on the bridge of his nose.

"W-we should tell sensei about this… I-it might mean someone's coming…" Hinata said quietly, standing up. "You're right." Kiba agreed, and also stood. The three of them began to make their way towards the red-eyed woman named Kurenai, who was their sensei.

"It's not likely someone other than us is traveling the desert right now. But we'll keep an eye open, so relax, okay?" She said, and then turned back to the other Jounin to continue on their meeting. The three sat back down, still nervous.

The giant group chattered for a while, the sky now dark and star-splashed. The moon hung, large and shimmering. Cold wind whipped the sand dunes every now and then, blowing grains around.

The "Handsome Devil of Konoha", along with Tenten sat down with Kurenai's Genin, because Neji was giving them the cold shoulder, obviously wanting to be left alone. They were deep into a thorough game of I Spy with My Little Eye, with only one problem…

"I spy with my little eye…" Tenten muttered, a finger to her chin, thinking. "Something that is beige!"

"I know! I know!" Lee flung his hand in the air, waving madly. "SAND!"

"Yay. Lee wins again." Tenten sweat dropped. It was very hard to play this game in a desert…

"Okay! My turn!" He exclaimed. Other Genin and Jounin were muttering angrily at his loudness as they tried to sleep. "I spy with my little eye… Hmm… What do I see?" Lee said thoughtfully, pondering, scanning his surroundings.

"I spy with my little eye… Gaara?"

Ehehehe:D Another cliffy!

Okay, again, I'm so very sorry for the late update. X.x I don't know when I'll be able to update again, but I'll try to make it soon.

I haven't seen Tsunade or Shizune yet in any episode, so forgive me if their attitudes are wrong. I've read in other stories that Tsunade drinks and gambles a lot, so I assume this is correct?

About the Yorukage: 'Yoru' means 'night' in Japanese. ( 3 Japanese handbooks and dictionaries rock.)

About this "Karura" that was in the story for a split second: 3 You'll just have to wait to see who she is, hmm? (For those of you who have already seen the entire series, you should know who she is.)

Oh, and about Naruto. ;O You'll just have to wait and see what happened to him, ne?

Thank you, and PLEASE review!

Phoenix-Roar