'Promise'

Chapter 11: We Three Dreams

"So they all survived?"

"All three girls have serious wounds, however they are alive and protected by the two male shinobi."

"Well that obviously didn't work, we'll have to think of another way. Shinobu, the Annex's magic is still active, right?"

"Yes. It only breaks if something happens to me or Naruto."

"Good. So for now, they're trapped inside the Annex?"

"Yes."

"We'll send you into the Annex. After all, they won't be able to touch you. Go in, and disrupt them in any way you can, whilst I get things ready for our final plan."

"Understood, Kanako."

The three girls were still in bad shape.

Kyoko's wounds were healing quickly, due to her Kyuubi powers. However, Hinata and Sakura didn't have the benefit of self-regeneration, so they had to make do with whatever first-aid Naruto and Sasuke could perform.

"Sasuke, chuck me the bandage."

"Here"

Naruto caught the bandage, and began wrapping it around Sakura's upper arm. He had managed to fix up most of her wounds, leaving her with only a few minor scratches left. With all three of the girls unconscious, it gave Sasuke and him time to figure out what their next move would be.

"Well now that these three have beaten the crap out of each other, what do we do now?" Naruto looked over at the bandaged bodies of the three girls. Even Kyoko had a band-aid above her right eye. A pretty one, with minuscule ninja on it.

"I honestly think we should tie them up, so they don't try to kill each other when they wake up."

"But we don't have any rope... And she could probably just burn her way out of it." Naruto nodded to Kyoko.

"If she wasn't a feared demon, she'd make a damn good ninja."

Both of them hung their heads and sighed. The situation wasn't getting any better, and still had the potential to get worse.

"Well, for now, we need a way to get out of this ridiculous Annex." Sasuke said. The Annex's magic was still in play, and there was an irritating griding noise echoing throughout the Annex.

"I thought it was the Kyuubi controlling it? Surely now that she's unconscious, the magic would fade?"

"That means there must be somebody else controlling the Annex. But who?"

Whilst they sat there and pondered on potential candidates, Hinata slowly began to wake up. Slowly opening her eyes and groaning in pain, she sat up and looked at the two boys.

"Naruto... Sasuke... Where are we?" She said sleepily.

"We're still in the annex Hinata." Naruto said, hoping she wasn't still in a bad mood.

"But what happened...?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Sasuke said, nodding a Naruto who nodded back. The events of the past hour would not be repeated.

"No, wait-"

As Hinata tried to get a word in, the door to the room they were currently in slowly creaked open. All three ninja instantly pulled out kunai and glared at the shadow walking through the door.

"N-Naruto...? Are you there?" It was Shinobu. She slowly wandered into the room, her eyes taking in all the kunai and blood splatter on the walls. "What h-happened?"

Naruto walked forward. "Nothing Shinobu. Just an accident. How did you get inside the Annex?"

But before he could get an answer, she burst into tears. She fell to her knees and hugged her shoulders, sobbing.

"I...I can't find any of them..." She cried. "Naru, Keitaro... Su, Kitsune, Motoko... They're all gone!"

Naruto knelt down beside her, pulling her into his arms. "It's okay Shinobu. You've got me, it's okay." He pulled her in to him tighter, as she sobbed into his jacket.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled at him.

"Get away from her, she's dangerous!" Hinata screamed at him, her Byakugan active.

"Wha-?" Naruto looked down at Shinobu, now clutched onto his jacket. She was glowing with a crimson aura, and her sobs had turned into soft giggles. The type you'd hear from a small girl in a horror film. He tried to get her off of him, but she held on tighter. Jumping forward, she pinned him to the ground, her eyes glowing an evil red and her mouth stretched wide in a horrific grin.

"You're not going anywhere, Naruto Uzumaki."

Without any kind of warning, she opened her mouth wide and bit into his neck.

"Naruto!" Both Sasuke and Hinata shouted out, rushing to get the girl off of their friend. But the crimson aura around Shinobu was painful to touch, it was making touching her impossible.

Naruto was screaming in pain as both the aura was hurting him and the whatever the bite was doing to him both inflicted pain on him. All Hinata and Sasuke could do was sit by and watch.

"I'm sorry, Naruto." Sasuke threw the kunai he had in his hand at Shinobu. With reflexes akin to a ninja, Shinobu managed to dodge it, jumping off Naruto's now unconscious body. Evil feminine laughter echoed throughout the room as Shinobu giggled where she stood.

"You're all going to die here."

Hinata rushed in, her Gentle Fist combat style thrusting in a punch to Shinobu's chest, who simply jumped away with inhuman reflexes.

"You're never going to catch me when you're that slow."

Sasuke unsheathed his sword and began to chase the demonic Shinobu. "What did you do to Naruto!" He yelled as he desperately tried to keep up with the constantly disappearing girl. Even with his Sharingan, keeping up with her was definitely a challenge.

"Oh, nothing serious. He's just in a state of perpetual death. He's neither alive, nor is he dead right now. But my master will need him this way. The power he holds will turn this world into a reality, and finally, we will become one of the many worlds that live amongst the stars."

She landed next to Naruto, and knelt next to his side.

"I'll be taking my precious Naruto with me. The only ones that can break the spell of the annex is me, and him. If you ever want to leave here again, you're going to have to kill me, or him."

And with that, both Naruto and the possessed Shinobu disappeared.

Thirty minutes had passed since then.

Hinata had been in tears, and Sasuke was desperately trying to think of a way of getting Naruto back.

It was then the other two girls finally decided to wake up.

Sakura was first, slowly drifting into consciousness. Her lime-green eyes slowly opened to the scene of blood on the walls. Sitting up slowly, she winced as her wounds began to sting.

"Slowly Sakura... You've only just woken up." Sasuke was on one knee, one hand on his sword. His entire body looked tense as he stared at the door. He looked as though he was ready to strike down anyone who came through the door.

Looking around the room, she saw Hinata scanning the area around them with her Byakugan. Her face looked moist, it looked like she had been crying recently.

Kyoko was on the ground not too far from her. She was unconscious, but her wounds were completely healed. Looking over her own body, she realized she had some patching up to do. But before that...

"Sasuke. Where's Naruto?" She had been aware that the blond ninja was no longer in the room, and everybody who was conscious seemed pretty tense. The two had to be connected somehow.

Sasuke's grip on his sword relaxed slightly as he turned his gaze to the ground. The atmosphere dropped a couple more notches below a painful silence. Hinata began to silently cry again, her fists curled into balls.

"Where's Naruto? Where is he?" She was panicking. Something had happened to him, it was obvious from their reaction. But neither of them would say.

"Tell me!"

"They took him Sakura." Sasuke's voice still had an electrified tension around it. It was like he was scared. "A demon took him away."

A moment of silence echoed around the room. To the rest of the occupants, Sakura's deathly quiet reaction was unnerving. After a few moments, she stood up, pulled out a kunai, and walked towards the door.

"No Sakura, don't! We don't know what's out there!" Sasuke stood abruptly, but his warning was cut off.

"I just beat one demon to get my hands on him. I'm going to kill whoever has taken him away from me this time." Sakura said in a low, menacing voice. Sasuke could feel the rage radiating from her, as she walked towards the door with an attitude that screamed she was about to kill an army, all by herself.