I promise next chapter will be longer! It really will be fun to write the next one, this one I had some trouble with...don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Rated M for Language

Chapter 16: "The Suspense"

"Blood Bath"

With the preparations complete Sunnora watched as the sky turned black and the fog got thicker, she knew it would be impossible for them to escape with their life in this fog, unless of course they could see through it, and unless they had demon eyes it would be futile. The radius of the demon chant only covered about a mile but they didn't know that. Knowing that things were finally going her way Sunnora grabbed the spinning pendant and winced as it cut into her hand deeply but she ignored the pain and placed it back on its silver bindings.

She knew the second part of the ritual was about to start so she had to hurry and get out of the fog, she saw the eyes of the humans watching her and grinned at them one last time before dashing off completely out of sight.

"WAIT", Naruto lunged forward trying to chase the girl that had run away, but only managed to step further into the fog, he looked back exasperated and noticed that his team wasn't behind him anymore.

"NARUTO, where are you?" Naruto perked up when he heard Sakura's voice and turned around, he was able to hear her voice clearly, just couldn't see her at all.

Spinning around for what seemed like forever, Naruto finally stopped when he started feeling dizzy.

"Sakura-chan! I'm right here!" Naruto placed his palms in front of his eyes and could only see the outline when they were practically touching his face.

"Naruto you idiot! Why did you run? Stay where you are, when the fog lets up we can go after her, we still have her scent remember?" Sakura said with concern in her voice, her concern turned into shock when she felt a sudden pain down her arm.

With tremendous speed, Sunnora escaped the fog with ease in less than a couple of seconds. She was relieved that she had made it in time for she knew the second stage of the ritual was about to commence.

Her eyes turned their natural light blue hue as she let the demon energy escape her. She was really fatigued with the amount of energy consumption that ritual required along with her speed that she almost collapsed as she strode along the path.

"I can't believe those kids have pushed me this far…it's unacceptable how someone of a higher being such as myself is being tested to these limits by a bunch of pathetic humans".

Sunnora snickered as she limped along the road in her tired state, 'where's that Shikamaru brat when I need him? I'm not actually faking the limp this time'.

Noticing a few signs straight ahead, Sunnora tried to ignore the pain in her limbs and headed in that direction.

Sakura gasped as she saw that her arm had a long cut along the side that was shallow but blood still trickled down at a steady pace.

"Sakura what's wro-" Kakashi was cut off when he too felt the pinch of pain as he felt something wet grace his cheek, noticing indeed that it was blood, his blood, but that wasn't all, it was mixed in with something black. 'This is bad, we have to find a way to get out of here'.

Sakura noticed her sensei's lack of words and assumed he had also felt what she had just a moment before.

"OW!"Naruto frowned when he felt the warm trickle of blood run slowly down his forehead. "Everyone, I think we're being attacked so be on guard!" Naruto pulled out his kunai and stood motionless just in case the enemy tried coming from any direction.

"Naruto, calm down, I don't sense any chakra nearby, means we must be in a ninjutsu of some kind, l have never seen anything like it". Kakashi tried to sense anything out of the ordinary but everything seemed alright, he looked up and using his sharingan he could make out details a little better. The sky was ominously dark, 'is it going to rain?'

Seeing droplets come down steadily he placed his arm out and caught a single drop in his hand before abruptly pulling it away. Analyzing his hand he saw traces of deep gashes and his blood was starting to pool, the falling drops were black like the substance they had found in the woods earlier, but this time it seemed to contain some materializing agent that caused it to be needle sharp and thin. The droplets were falling down quicker now and avoiding them would soon be impossible for him and very dangerous for the rest of the team.

"OW! Okay..something hit me for real this time", Naruto felt the pain again, but this time it had cut very deeply into his shoulder. "We might be standing under a pinecone tree".

"They're called pine trees and how have you deduced it was a pinecone?" Neji voiced sarcastically from a few feet away.

"Well, it was sharp, pinecones are sharp right?"

"Naruto-kun is correct, pinecones are very sharp Neji-kun, I got hit by one last week when I was training with Gai-sensei" Lee said as he tried facing Naruto but just kept turning around.

"It's not a pinecone…" Neji said as he couldn't believe the idiots that surrounded him.

A few seconds later, the black substance was starting to come down faster than before and multiplying in numbers, in a minute or two it would come down like rain and it would be over unless they thought of something.

'If someone saw the state I'm in right now I would surely be taunted and humiliated for eternity' Sunnora made her way through what looked like a small town. There were local stands with what she recognized as food that humans couldn't survive without. She shook her head at the notion, 'they really are very weak and vulnerable creatures…those humans'.

The few people that were outside were people that had to get up extra early for chores or work, hours before dawn, some courageous idiots that she passed gave her quizzical glances and disapproving looks mostly from some of the older people. She was too drained to kill them for looking her way without bowing but she wasn't tired enough to glare at them with a menacing scowl; no one dared to look at her after that.

Sunnora limped through the town and even though most of the shops were closed, there were a few open, she saw a bigger building up ahead and noticed an older man sitting outside the steps. He looked her way when she was a few feet away from where he was perched. Sunnora was about to call him out to mind his own damn business when he smiled at her. It caught her off guard, no one ever smiled at her when all she ever wore was an unpleasant facial expression.

He got up from his chair and walked towards her, she could tell from his pace that he was struggling to walk, 'well that's one thing we have in common'.

He eyed her from head to toe which pissed the goddess off but almost killed the man when he had the audacity to grab her hand.

Yanking it quite harshly from his grip she was about to scream at him when he started chuckling.

'What the hell is up with all the psychotic freaks in this realm?!'

"I'm sorry miss, I shouldn't have grabbed your hand like that, it seems I just got carried away, I just got so excited when I saw you from my chair, I'm not good with descriptions and all but I could tell you're that angel I heard about, no mistaking it", the old man showed all his teeth in a large smile that made Sunnora cringe.

'Angel?'

"Oh I'm sorry, how rude of me! I haven't even introduced myself, I'm Mamoru Masa, I'm Yasu's brother!"

Sunnora didn't want to know how or remotely cared how this guy knew her or was mistaking her for someone else because he was some old fart but right now she didn't care and started walking away from the man without a second glance back.

"Oh no! Are you hurt?" Masa hurried along as quickly as he could with his injury and walked alongside Sunnora who hadn't stopped limping. "Please let me help you out! Stay in my inn until you get better".

Sunnora stopped abruptly which led to the man behind her to almost topple over. Sunnora turned around and faced Masa who was now struggling to keep his balance.

"Come with me child, my inn is that building over there", he said pointing to the two story building, it wasn't the nicest inn but it would do for what it was necessary for, and that was a good rest to recover demon energy.

"I'll stay", Sunnora waited for the man to step aside and started heading in the direction of the inn.

"That's good to hear child, you're really an angel from heaven you know?"

Sunnora almost laughed out loud at that but didn't lose her composure. 'He really is one senile old man, has even lost his memory but it benefits me in the end'.

They reached the lobby of the inn and Masa took a small bronze key from one of his cabinets. He led Sunnora upstairs to her room and showed her in.

"Okay well this is your room, I'm sorry it couldn't be nicer but it seems this is the last room we have available, I really didn't want to put you in this floor", the older man looked down as if feeling guilty but Sunnora dismissed it and looked around.

The room was small and simple, it had a small bed with crisp sheets and a single pillow on top. There was a window showing the outside of the inn where she had stood just minutes ago and a small desk with a few books and a candle illuminating the otherwise pitch dark room.

"Oh my! I just noticed your wound, please come to the restroom so I can clean it up", Masa didn't wait for her response as he hurried out the room and headed straight for the restroom looking for a few bandages and ointment.

'What the hell is that crazy old man talking about, I'm not-'

Sunnora's eyes visibly widened when she noticed the wound on her hand was still open and bleeding, now that she recalled back on it, she did feel a slight pain in her hand as she was walking but she didn't dwell much on it, she was immortal after all, so why wasn't the wound from the ritual healing up?

'It couldn't be-'

Sunnora clenched her fists and furrowed her eyebrows as she realized the consequences that came with using demon rituals for non-sacrificial purposes. She didn't know how long it would last or if this was all that would come of the consequences but she figured lying low in an inn for a while was her best option at the moment.

Heading to the restroom she sat on one of the benches that aligned the wall and placed her hand in the warm water that Masa had prepared. "Good, now I just need to wash off that black stuff that got in your wound, wow…it really got in deep didn't it?" he kept washing but Sunnora scoffed at his obvious stupidity and pulled her hand out of the water.

"It's fine now, just give me the bandage, I can do it myself".

Masa looked a little startled but brushed it off and handed over the white stretchy material. "You really are a savior to our family, I had been talking to Yasu, trying to convince him to quit that stupid idea he had about turning into a criminal, my brother is too old to be thinking like some punk kid, what you did for him and his family is really a miracle. He told me how you healed his whole farm after that bastard Ryota burned it. At first I didn't believe it but I heard the sincerity in his voice, he told me about you, the angel and described you perfectly, I really couldn't have missed you with the description he gave me. One thing that had me a little skeptical was one detail that wasn't too accurate, he said you were always smiling, but I mean you must have had a bad day, so it's understandable, you were injured after all. How about later when you're feeling better you take off that mask and show me that smile my brother went on and on about huh? So stay here as long as you want, you are forever in the Mamoru families' gratitude".

Sunnora finished bandaging her hand and was about to head back to her room when he stopped her before she could pass him by.

"Also I want to warn you dear, there is a psychotic man across from your room, I didn't want to tell you to not frighten you but I feel like you should know. I really am sorry that that was the last room available, he's very violent and threatened to kill me. I don't like causing trouble here so hopefully he leaves soon, if you need anything at all, I'm in the first room downstairs, sleep well child".

Sunnora walked back to her room as she watched the old man head downstairs.

She stood just outside her door and stared at the opposite room for a couple of seconds. 'So there's some psychotic nut job right across from me huh? Maybe I'll have someone normal to talk to around here then'.

She was so fatigued that once inside the room she let her body fall limply on the bed without a second thought and fell asleep.

Hidan couldn't sleep; he had been sleeping for a couple of hours now but his mind kept wandering making it impossible to get a whole night's rest. He was wondering if that girl was dead or if she had managed to survive somehow.

Hidan smirked as an idea came to his mind, he knew sacrifices always made him feel better and after one he always fell asleep quite contently. He looked around the room and noticed a small silver tray on the desk and contemplated whether to use the rusty looking knife as a weapon, he decided to go along with it seeing as he didn't have much of an option.

'Jashin-sama, I am forever grateful to you for saving me from that hell hole, one day I will repay you with the sacrifice of that piece of shit that put me there in the first place, but for now I'll have to sacrifice meager souls to you until I can get my ultimate revenge'.

Walking outside his door he noticed the halls were dark, the only light was a small candle in the restroom across the hall. He also noticed the floor had six bedrooms, with three on each side of the hall, his being the one closest to the windows. Placing the knife up his sleeve he walked to the door adjacent to his and turned the handle.

"Well that was a waste of time; it's so late you know? A girl needs her beauty sleep", Ino and the rest of the team were standing headed back to the village after failing to get much work done at the bar where the massacre had taken place.

"Ino is right Yamato-sensei, but first, let's find Shikamaru, I don't understand why he didn't show up, it's not like him", Choji had been concerned about Shikamaru the whole time so they didn't do much investigating, deciding it would be better to do it when the sun came up and their missing member, the one with great observation skill came with them.

"I'm still going to have to report this to the Hokage, let's-", Yamato stopped in his tracks, the duo stopped beside him.

"What's wrong?" Ino and Choji both said in unison.

"We are going to have to take a detour, follow me"

Reviews are welcomed and encouraged! A lot of Hidan/Sunnora next chapter (: