A/N: Just so you know, there's going to be a few things here that may disturb a few people, so viewer discretion is needed. There's no violence per-say, I just address some themes and images which may affect some people.

If ANYONE can please come up with a better title, please let me know. I'm stumped!

Also! This chapter has a lot of flashbacks and thought processes so for the sake of your sanity, here is my guide:

"This is normal prose.", 'This is thoughts.', "And this is a flashback."

Read, review and enjoy.

That is all!

Lonski.

Chapter 8

Memories.

Her eyes felt hot as she stared down at the seemingly endless amount of words and symbols laid before her, she could no longer remember the last time she left the Library when the sun was still up. That thought alone made her sink into another layer of dark depression.

"That's it." She pushed herself up, stiff limbs protested as she swayed a little before making for the nearest exit. She was no use to anyone looking up books, besides there was the rest of the so-called research team working on it too. Minato had taken time off to train his team and now with them being on a mission for X amount of says, it was only fair that she could take some time to stretch her legs and –

"Agh, its freezing out here!" Kushina cursed to herself, the fire country was well-known for its balmy weather throughout the year but the sun seemed unable to break through the misty cloud today. What would have been a gentle breeze had now become a chilled breath. She pushed her long hair forward to rest around her arms and wrapped her arms around herself as she walked down the heavy stone steps.

"Great, the day I go out for some sun and it had to be on one of its days off. Just great, I may as well be indoors – Wait." She paused as an idea came to mind, they had spent so much time looking in books and scrolls for more information of whatever managed to reanimate the corpses that no one had thought of actually looking again at them with something more specific then the green goo and the official cause of death. She turned abruptly to walk towards the hospital, she entered the main street and was soon met with a crowd of Shinobi and civilians alike shopping and going out to eat, it was the main image she got whenever she thought of home when she was away on a mission. Just a normal day, walking through the Village alone or with friends. Maybe getting some Ramen with Minato. Kushina smiled at that, it was the simple things in life which she loved the most and although she would never admit that to anyone, she always kept those memories to heart.

"Wait, did I just make a goofy face whilst thinking of blondie?"

However, before she could examine that idea closer, she noticed a familiar pair of boys in the distance stood nearby the great gate of the Village. Intrigued, she walked down the high-street towards them.

"Oi! What are you two doing moping around here for?" Kushina yelled, neither had noticed her coming as they had both been looking away and at the dirt path that led to the Village.

"EH? Don't DO that!" Hagane yelled with a jump, "What was that for?" The scandalised boy asked as he rubbed over his panicked heart.

Izumo shrugged, "Guard duty." He tried to look nonchalant by making a slight cough; it was a good effort to look anything other than surprised.

"Guard duty?" Kushina asked with a puzzled face.

"Yeah, we figured it would be a good thing to see who goes in and out of the village." Kushina didn't miss the slight tremor in Hagane's voice as he spoke.

"Wh… so this is how you've spent your time then? I thought you were going to train, instead you're spending your time watching folks come and go all day, asking questions and jotting down names?" Kushina couldn't understand their surprised expressions, they were supposed to be improving their skills and instead they spend all day doing nothing – by choice!

"Actually we don't ask questions or for names." Hagane offered and seemed to instantly regret it as he felt the heat of her glare.

Her hand shook as she clenched them, "Then what do you do?" The words were spat through clenched teeth; Hagane sank further into his seat.

Izumo obviously seemed to try and save his friend from certain doom, he rose from his chair and replies quickly, "We watch for any suspicious activity; transformation techniques amongst other kinds of genjutsu, concealed weapons, suspicious packages."

Kushina frowned with disbelief, "But you haven't been trained in those things yet –"

"-We told this to the Third, then he referred us to train with Kurenai Yūhi; another Chūnin who specialises in Genjutsu –" Hagane tried to say but was cut off by Kushina who appeared to have heard enough.

"It's one thing that he coops me up in that damn Library but to make you do guard duty! What does that even mean, huh? No one's done that before, so why now? I've had enough, I'm going to sort this out right now with the Th – "

"- No!" Hagane shouted as he rose from his chair, abruptly cutting her off mid-rant; surprising the other two. "No one's ever done it before and now Anko's gone." Kushina's anger seemed to waver at the boy's admission, "So we went to the Third and asked him about us maybe doing this, it might not stop people coming in and going out the Village completely but… It might help. Just a little. So the Third decided that an official guard would be made. So we take a few days each week and some other Chūnins take over on other sifts during the day and the gates close at sunset. And we train with Kurenai whenever we can to help us with our job. At least this way… if she ever does come back on her own… We'll know about it."

Completely deflated now, Kushina looked at Izumo for confirmation, ne nodded solemnly to her. "Agh, so you're still training then?"

Izumo gave her a lob sided smile and replied, "'Course, we need to be ready for when you and Minato-Sensei find more clues so we won't be a liability on the mission to bring her back."

A lump formed in her throat, she made a small cough and tried to speak but her voice seemed to have left her so she punched them both not-too-lightly in the stomachs.

"Right," She managed to say eventually, "I better not let you both down then."

"Any leads?" Hagane wheezed as he sank back into his chair.

"None yet," Kushina chirped, "but I have an idea."

Izumo raised an eyebrow and asked, "Oh?"

The red-head shrugged and admitted, "It might not lead to anything substantial so it's not worth talking about it, but I'ma gonna shoot off just in case it does. The stuff I'm gonna look at won't be worth looking at, as more time passes shall we say."

Izumo grimaced as he understood her but Hagane looked at Kushina and Izumo questioningly.

Izumo shook his head, "Forget it, Hagane. You'd only complain at me for telling you if I did."

"How could you know that if you haven't told me yet? I might not mind." Hagane complained.

Before an argument grew and took full-swing, Kushina decided to take her leave, with a wave, she rang, "See ya!" And took off back down the high-street, and weaved between the shoppers.

Kushina clamped her hand over her mouth and nose as she fought the urge to gag.

"Which one would you like to look at?" A female Medic-nin asked her in a dull tone.

"Any I'm not too choosy – erm, maybe the one most intact maybe… Yeah."

"Right." The medic said in an aloof tone, and went to a nearby desk filled with files with a huff.

Kushina had taken an instant dislike towards the other ninja, why would anyone in the right mind choose a profession where they dealt with dead people all day. 'Then again, if I had her amount of charm with people I would choose to hide away in an oversized freezer filled with… ugh!' She thought with a scowl '…I bet a decapitated foot with an ingrown toenail would be more pleasant than her!'

The medic cleared her throat moodily.

"What?" Kushina asked as she emerged from her internal rant.

"I said; the subject is in this draw." The medic nin gestured with her thumb. "I'll get the key. Enjoy." She continued as she fumbled for the right one on her keychain.

"Wh-what? You're not staying?"

"Nope," The medic shot back as she flung the right key at an affronted Kushina, and continued "It's my break. I'll be back in an hour, if you're gone before I'm back, lock up. Bye." And with that, the medic was gone.

"What?" Kushina blurted to a swinging door. With a sigh she turned to the right draw and pulled the draw open.

She balked as the draw ran fully out beside her, "I thought the cold was supposed to help stop this!" Kushina coughed as she tried not to gag, the smell of gradually decomposing flesh attacked her senses.

She looked at the body of the man she had killed that day and remembered...

"I don't know what you are talking about."

The sheer honesty rang through his voice that told her he was a man with nothing to lose.

"Told to distract... anyone who came our way. Don't know who but paid a lot - of money." The man gasped as his head rolled sideways, the rain washed the cold metal of his headband to reveal that it was blank and the rock countries symbol was nothing but an illusion.

'Was that the man's true thoughts or was that also part of another illusion…' She didn't need to look at the Pathologist's report to remember the body had been drained of its blood and replaced with a special chakra sensitive fluid. She could clearly see the puncture wounds used to drain the blood and the abrasions on the ankles which had been caused when the body was hung. The wounds looked old; dark bruises blotched the pallid skin and had not even scabbed; a post-mortem wound, the file had informed her.

"Told to distract... anyone who came our way."

That bit might be true since the three who had intercepted her tem had done a good job of that. 'But the money part?' That didn't quite add up. The wounds were post-mortem so maybe they had been paid or promised pay only to be deceived and used as rotting puppets to delay the search teams in finding Anko. But why go through all that trouble? On top of all that, to pretend they're Rock-nins with a shoddy disguise?'

"…Am I the only person here who thinks that's a great deal of trouble to do something you could just do with a small chisel and a pick?" Kushina asked with a look around the room.

"For once we share a similar train of thought Kushina." Homura responded with a sniff, "It does seem like a troubling method to simply disguise the Shinobi's true origins.

"Troubling indeed, troubling also to uncover the truth." Ibiki surmised as he crossed his arms, "And so it seems our enemy is more than willing to spend a lot of time and energy to confuse and delay us, this does not seem like a man who would form a superficial plan but instead one which would be very disconcerting indeed."

'On the other hand,' Kushina thought, 'no one really likes the Rock Village because everyone knows they're itching for a war. Even I know that. So maybe the guy who did this wanted us to think they were really from the Rock Village to make us look the other way. Maybe they underestimated Konoha's abilities; it's a long stretch but… maybe.'

She stepped away from the body and sighed, she hated being cooped up. It was amazing that she actually wanted to spend time in a place like this, even the Library was better. Old dead books were better than hanging out with the dead.

She looked over the body in a desperate attempt to find something the Pathologist might have missed; some other mark or abrasion which could give her a clue. How had this person been controlled? It couldn't have been via chakra strings; she would have noticed and they moved nothing like puppets…

… The stench of burning swept over her and stung her nose and eyes, she covered her face with Kenji's borrowed handkerchief and instead she tried to concentrate on the salty and metallic combination of her tears and blood on the cloth. She didn't want to think about what other things were burning other than the wood of buildings. It was too much to think about. All those people...

She never did go back. Someone told her once that there had been survivors from that night but they had scattered without a trace. Kushina didn't blame them; she had done the same after all. Sasori of the Red Sand… That was a name she would always remember. Minato was lucky she wasn't an avenger; the last she had heard of Sasori was that he had disappeared after the attack but she suspected he was still alive. The life of a fugitive missing-nin wasn't exactly that of a particularly public one so it was only natural he had disappeared after time. In truth, she didn't really want to fight anyone, sure her nature was typically hot-blooded but that was it. She didn't like to hold grudges, she hated arguments (contrary to popular belief, her mouth had a life of its own) and she hated people who singled out others for their own amusement. She was the bullies' worst nightmare as a kid, her still being called; Red Hot-Blooded Habanero was testament to her power over them in the end.

"Hmm." It hadn't been fun being singled out, the adults mistrusted her and their kids hated her from their folks' example. It was better now that people has bothered to get to know her better. It was all because of…

"Wait."

Kushina raised a hand over the stomach of the body and focused her energies in transferring a little chakra. Suddenly a network of lines formed symbol which she instantly recognised as a seal.

"What the hell?" She gasped, startled, she had never seen this seal be used. Kushina barely knew what it did exactly but she knew the Third needed to know about it. Kushina grabbed the body's file and drew a rough sketch of the seal before it faded and shoved the draw back in before she left.

So, a quick chapter even though I'm supposed to be working right now! I was inspired by a lovely and unexpected review and well, I just had to continue with this story as soon as I got a spare moment. You see, reviewing really does make all the difference!

Please continue reading, I hope you're enjoying this story and I really hope you have a good Christmas holiday as I might not be able to update before then!

Ah yeah, this story had been following a vague parallel with the actual series; I came up with the idea of the Uzumaki Village being destroyed by Sasori (I don't know if he's to blame) because he had claimed to have destroyed a nation with his puppetry, Anko's disappearance did happen but she was his Sensei I think but I changed that because I thought her being in a team with Hagane and Izumo would be funny! And Hagane and Izumo being gate guards does happen but for all I know it happened only for the first time when Tsunade made them do it as her official Gofers. I thought it was a sweet image to have them wait every day for their teammate to return, it seemed to be in character for them. And Hagane's crush on Anko, and well… He's the most rebellious of the three and Anko seemed to be quite uptight to me so it just seemed natural that he would like her and for him to be constantly rebuffed by her. Bless.

Believe me or don't I don't really mind but I had always planned for her to be the container for the Kuubi, for her to have so much characterisation in the Manga just said to me that she would be an important character later on and well I just wanted her to have a lot of parallels with Naruto anyway because of their similar personalities, I wanted her to go after Anko similar to how Naruto is looking for Sasuke.

Blah blah blah, I don't even know why I said all that but I guess I'm just happy that for once in my life I did a bit of forward planning! Just a bit of trivia: I started taking an interest in Kushina's story because she's a red head and well although I'm not a natural one I've been one for a few years now. Red head's make the best characters, Cha! What is with the sudden craze with dying hair red these days? Rihanna does it and the world goes MAD CRAZY!

Hehe.

Thanks again!

Lonski.