Chapter 5

The Search

"I think he's immortal," Naruto said with a serious tone in his voice. They heard footsteps approaching, running. The boys looked to the door. The rest of their friends came rushing in. Sakura reached them first, out of breath.

"What's going on?" she asked, in shock. The boys stared at her, not recognizing this strange pink haired girl. She saw their expressions and stopped talking.

"Who the heck are you people?" Naruto asked as the group filed behind them. Sakura was outraged. What kind of nasty joke was this? Something weird was going on. She punched Naruto hard, sending him crashing into a pillar. The group behind Sakura stared at her and Naruto in shock.

"I hope you learned your lesson!" she shouted at them. Naruto shook his head, as if waking up from a bad dream. He looked at the group and smiled widely. Natsu and Aang had the same goofy look on their face.

"Sakura-Chan! Sai! Kakashi-Sensei! You guys, what took you so long to get here?" Naruto exclaimed. He rubbed his temple. He sure had a big headache. Aang fell back against the pillar.

"Naruto!" Sakura growled. She didn't know what was wrong with him. Maybe it was the hit that did it. She was ready to do it again. Naruto saw what was coming and his eyes grew wide with fright. He waved his hands in front of him.

"Sa- Sa- Sakura…" Naruto stammered, terrified, "Chan…"

"Stop! Wait!" Aang cried out. Everyone turned to Aang.

"Nani…?" Sai wondered aloud.

"What is it?" Lucy asked. Aang held up the book for everyone to see. Instantly, Naruto's recount of the events rushed into his head. The same thing occurred to Natsu and both boys fell down dizzily.

"Naruto!" Sakura, Sai, Kakashi, and Katara said alarmed.

"Natsu!" his Fairy Tail team said. They all watched Aang and the book in alarm.

"This is proof." Aang stated loudly for everyone to hear. "Naruto, Natsu, and I have been looking through this book. It was important to us at the time, so it's all we remembered. More like, it's all the grayness let us remember. It says so in this book that there was once, and still may be, a guy named Allive whose grayness dulled people's memories."

Zuko shook his head. Others shook their heads in agreement.

"At least look through this journal with us, and remember your comrades… all the time!" Aang said finally.

The group looked through the journal and studied it closely. They remembered to look up once in a while and go over their memories. It was easier to remember things now. They learned a lot about their supposed enemy, Allive and Naruto tipped them that he's fought many immortal guys. There was once a guy named Hidan in a group called the akatsuki that was so immortal, his head being sliced off didn't even kill him. The group was shocked at that. Allive was in charge of a world called Gallin. Naruto's world was called Masashimoto, Aang's was called Avalastar and Natsu's was called Fiore. They concluded that Allive was trying to destroy the world and force everyone to be controlled by him in his own world. There was a note in the back:

Natsu Dragneel,

In case you didn't get here in time, I wanted to leave you a note. The only way you can stay yourself is to have hope and give hope. When I get to that dimension, I will share all my hope for you with all the villagers and beyond. I know I can count on you and your team to save this world and all the other worlds out there. I want you to know that I believe Igneel is out there somewhere. I'm counting on you to save this beloved world. You and your new friends will be the next leader of these worlds. Take care of everyone.

Have hope,

Master

"So this really isn't a dream is it?" Natsu wondered, "Any ideas? I'll take any…"

The group was quiet after going through the book. Natsu secretly wondered about his adoptive father, Igneel. Kakashi stepped up.

"It'll be better if we split into teams of three or four," he offered. Naruto lit up.

"That's a great idea! We could search for the source of this power and destroy it!" He exclaimed. The others nodded. Some thought he was crazy.

"Okay, how about getting into the groups we came from since we work well together?" Grey asked. Kakashi shook his head.

"No, what if the balance of power between these worlds is like the elements? An endless circle?" Kakashi said. The others thought this was rational and agreed.

"We could have a group with each person or more from a different world." Sokka said.

"No dip, Sherlock," Toph said to him. Naruto already had him team.

"My group consists of Aang and Natsu!" he called. Natsu and Aang nodded. Sai was with Toph, Grey, and Zuko. Sakura had Katara, and Lucy. They would be the healing team. So that left Erza, Kakashi and Sokka together. Lucy brought out four maps, and soon, they had the world divided up into quadrants. With the world in fourths, it was still huge.

Naruto, Natsu, and Aang rode on Appa over the land.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Naruto asked, peering over Appa's saddle.

"I don't know… something darker than this grayness? Something black maybe…?" Natsu answered. Aang peered over the side from Appa's head.

"Appa continue flying around; Natsu remember to mark where we've already checked on the map. Naruto increase your numbers and fan out to check on the ground." Aang gave orders. He jumped from Appa and caught a lift with his staff.

Surprisingly, the boys easily took orders from this thirteen-year-old kid. Naruto sent clones to search at ground level. Aang flew on his staff around and Natsu hurriedly highlighted the places Aang, Naruto, and he were seeing.

With his sharingan activated, Kakashi could see the strange black aura the grayness gave off.

"That eye is so awesome!" Sokka exclaimed excitedly. He was so happy to be put with this strong guy. Erza and Kakashi ignored him.

"Split up a little, but don't go too far in case we need help." Kakashi ordered. Erza and Sokka nodded and did as they were told. Sokka went to the street to the left. He was uncomfortable. He had never been in a dangerous place himself before. Have hope, have hope, he repeated in his head. The words helped him keep his memories. He was going to prove that he could be as useful as everyone else.

Kakashi scanned the perimeter. He checked in on Erza and Sokka every now and then. He couldn't fully trust them yet; they could be the real enemy. He just played along with it. Naruto seems to trust them, Kakashi thought; Naruto is strong enough to defend himself against those guys… I hope so anyway.

Erza looked around, not really knowing what she was trying find. She was looking for anything she didn't recognize. She didn't see anything weird except for the grayness and emptiness of course. She wondered how her friends were.

"What are you doing?" Grey asked. Instead of paying attention to their surroundings, this guy was drawing! He was drawing when he should be looking around. Sai looked up at Grey. Grey peeked at what he was drawing. It was mice, mice! Why was he drawing mice? Suddenly Sai said, "Ninpo, Super Beast Scroll no jutsu!" The mice came to life and popped up out of the page. Toph jumped at the unsuspected creatures she hadn't sensed with her feet. They stared with shock at the mice.

"Disperse!" Sai said. The mice went in all different directions.

"Stupid Sai! Don't do that to me! Warn me next time!" Toph shouted.

"Sorry," Sai said.

"Let's split up," Zuko said. It was a good idea, but he just wanted to get away from all these weird people. Toph and Zuko went off to the left, and Sai and Grey walked to the right. Zuko didn't like the naked guy. Grey was the total opposite of Zuko. Grey was so aggravating. Zuko walked off with Toph at his side. He didn't mind Toph. He was used to Toph, plus Toph could see a lot of stuff.

Sakura liked these girls. They were just like her, strong willed and tough. She looked left. Katara was looking foreword and Lucy was looking to the left. Sakura marked off the street they were searching from the map. She sighed, It's going to take forever to finish searching this part of the world. They didn't even know what they were searching for. I'll get this done! Sakura was determined to be helpful in this. She continued on strongly.

~End of Chapter 5~