Chapter 38

Hinata and Sakura traded nervous glances as they set up the blood circle necessary for Sakura to perform the jutsu that would seal away the presence of her heartstrings. They had arranged for Sasuke and Naruto to take the children to the bridge naming ceremony so that they wouldn't have any distractions but so far it didn't seem to be helping very much. If anything the absence of the children made them focus far too much on anything and everything that could go wrong.

"Are you ready Sakura?" Hinata asked, her voice slightly hesitant.

"As ready as I'll ever be I guess." Sakura said. "Let's just hope that this works…"

Hinata only nodded before she suddenly activated her byakugan. The veins on her temples bulged with the sudden rush of chakra but neither of the girls paid attention, already used to the vast difference the blood-limit created. After a few seconds of looking the other girl over Hinata finally nodded.

"Alright, please brace yourself Sakura. From what I understood from my scrolls this could possibly be very painful."

Sakura nodded. "I'm ready."

Hinata dropped into a slanted stance with one arm parallel with her front leg and the other stretched out strait behind her. She slowly took a deep breath and letting it out before her head snapped up so she was looking Sakura strait in the eyes.

"Juinjutsu: Sixty-four strikes!"

Sakura did her best to become completely limp as Hinata raced towards her, her hands posed to strike.

"Two! Eight! Sixteen! Thirty-two! Sixty-four strikes!"

Sakura went down with a harsh cry when the last strike finally landed. For seemingly hours she lay curled up on herself as she felt her chakra completely seal away.

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Ichigo knew that she was being selfish every time she dragged Gaara off for a walk or a sparring session but she couldn't help it. She could see! After almost six years of complete darkness she was able to experience the light once more. And she still didn't know why. Baki-sensei and Kyo-nii-chan had thrown around several different theories but nothing solid. Then again the entire science of medical jutsus was still a large mystery. No one really knew why or how they worked. Some even believed that it was a completely different type of chakra that was used.

Still, whatever the reason, Ichigo was just happy that she could see again. And she wasn't the only one either. Sure only Baki, Kyo, and Gaara had ever really known the girl when she had use of her eyes but Tenten and Temari already said that she had rapidly become a fantastic sparring partner because of her sudden leap in confidence. Something she had been sorely lacking since she had accidently burned down Gaara's compound all that time ago.

Actually, she was supposed to have met Temari for sparring fifteen minutes ago but she had drug Gaara off for a quick walk five minutes before she was supposed to meet the other girl and had somehow lost track of time extending the quick five minute walk to a fairly long twenty minutes. She probably would have just continued on walking as well if Gaara hadn't suddenly reminded her of how long they had been away.

They had just turned back when Ichigo reached out and grabbed Gaara by his forearm to stop him.

"Ne, Gaara-kun," She said. "This place feels familiar…"

Gaara paused for a second before he looked around. "Aa. This is where we found that headband."

Ichigo looked up at him in surprise. "Did you and Kyo-nii-san ever come back here?"

Gaara shook his head. "I didn't but Kyo-san and Baki-san did. They looked upset when they came back."

Ichigo gently bit her bottom lip as she looked off into the forest in the direction that she knew Gaara had gone in before. Finally she nodded firmly. "I want to go look."

Gaara frowned. "No. What I saw before was not something that you should ever be exposed to."

Ichigo turned to face him, her hands on her hips in irritation. "I'm a ninja too, Gaara. Whatever is over there I can handle it. Besides," She said. "I doubt that Kyo-nii-san or Baki-sensei would just leave something there that people shouldn't see."

Gaara was silent for a moment before he finally gave a small nod. "Fine," he said. "But we'll be fast. We are already late enough as it is."

Ichigo grinned up at Gaara with a I-knew-you-would-say-yes grin that had him rolling his eyes in irritation as she hurried off into the woods; Gaara close at her heals.

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Orochimaru hissed in annoyance at the complete incompetence of his subordinates. For almost seven years they had been in search of the corner kids and so far not even a feint chakra trail had been found pointing to where they might be hiding and on top of that the Uchiha brat had to up and die before he had even come of an age to be useful. And as if things could not be worse Yume had escaped from his prison and disappeared. Orochimaru's only consolation on that was the fact that he had abandoned his little jounin to their fate.

His jounin…

Orochimaru's lips suddenly curved upwards in a sadistic smirk. Why hadn't he thought of it before? That Haruno girl possessed the heartstrings. Regardless of his seal she would still be able to send and receive feelings and emotions. All he had to do was resume his torture and those little corner brats would come racing to her rescue.

Not only that, but it would make him feel a great deal better as well.

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At that moment in several different parts of the world three of the surviving four Harunos gasped suddenly and clutched at their chests when a part of them that had always been there was abruptly torn away.

Through clenched teeth Hikari forced out the cause of her ailment before she slammed her fist hard to the stone floor.

"Sakura…"

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Hinata pressed her lips into a tight line as she watched the glowing runic blood circle slowly fade back to red as she cut off her chakra flow. Once it had completely returned to its original rust red Sakura looked up from where she had been kneeling in the center of the circle and pushed her pink bangs from her eyes.

"Did it work?" She asked hesitantly.

"I…I'm not sure." Hinata said. "How am I going to tell?"

"Hm…we probably should have thought that over before we did this whole thing…" She looked up at her friend, her face contemplative. "Did I ever show you how to use the symmetry plain?"

Hinata nodded slowly. "Yes, you attempted but I was never able to reach it. Sasuke wasn't either but I'm pretty sure that Naruto-kun was able too."

Sakura nodded. "That's not surprising considering our bloodline limits are both rather similar. Alright then. We'll just have to go ask Naruto to enter the Symmetry plain and see if he can find my presence."

Hinata stood with a nod before she reached down a hand to help Sakura stand. "Do you feel any different though?"

Sakura paused for a second before she shrugged. "Not really. The heartstrings are still a bit fuzzy but that could just be because of my necklace. I still haven't taken it off yet."

"That's probably a good idea." Hinata said. "Until we know for sure we wouldn't want to place ourselves at even more of a risk then we already are."

"Right," Sakura agreed. "Now let's go find the guys. I want to see if all of our hard work has finally paid off."

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"So how close are we to the kids?" Yotaro asked as he raced through the trees along side of the yondaime and Kaemon. "Do you know not where they're actually located?"

"I don't know exactly where they are," Yume said. "But from what I understand from Itachi this ring should lead me to them. Something about his chakra connecting him to them in some way."

"Wait, ring?" Yotaro said as he landed on a sturdy branch and came to a stop. "What kind of ring?"

Yume paused in surprise as he turned to the young jounin. "I didn't tell you?"

"No, you just said that you knew where they were." Yotaro said. "Can I see it?"

Yume shrugged as he pulled the ring from his pinky and handed it over to Yotaro. The younger man smiled when he held the fire red ring in his palm. There was a feint chakra print that coated it unmistakably belonging to Itachi. His fingers slowly closed around it as though by doing that he would be able to be closer to the friend he had been sure he had lost almost seven years ago.

"Yotaro?" Kaemon said. "We need to keep moving. Sanjimaru says he can feel the Kyuubi's chakra print becoming more pronounced. And I have a feeling that I know exactly where it is going to lead us."

"You do?" Yume said, his voice skeptical. "How?"

"Before he died Obito mentioned that his students were on a mission in the wave country. They should have already gotten back by now but it's a good lead."

"How do you know that Naruto and the others were Obito's students?" Yotaro said. "He never actually gave you their names did he?"

"No," Kaemon said. "But the Kyuubi's trail is too coincidental. You said that he was Uzumaki Naruto-san's guardian familiar didn't you?"

Yotaro nodded. "Yeah. At least that's what Masamune said when we first started tracking them."

"Then that is where they are. Or at least, that is where they were not too long ago."

"Then what are we waiting here for?" Yume said. "Let's head to the wave country. I want to see my son."

The other two men nodded in agreement before they all suddenly leapt forward, their bodies a blur as they ran.

End Chapter 38

Kaliea: Yes, yes, I know it's short. I apologize. I've been having a lot of writers block with this story lately but hopefully it will ebb when I start the next arch. Don't forget to review!

Review Answers:

cbsnumba1: Sorry for the long wait. I've had a killer time trying to write this and I'm still not really satisfied. Oh well. I hope you liked it anyway.

Justhere101: thank-you I'm glad you like it.

Bailin: No, Yotaro's ability is because of his family bloodline limit. I'll explain more about that once his group meets up with Naruto's.

Danny-171984: You'd be surprised. My kid brother (who is four now) was some sort of crazy prodigy baby. He was super smart and knew exactly what was going on around him from the time he was born. He just couldn't really say anything. He did use a lot of grunts though, and 'Nn' was one of them.

Zoria-chan 816: Of course they are! And believe me, they will be very surprised.

Princess Ren: Yep. Yotaro is going to enjoy being able to help raise Itachi's son. Though I imagine Itachi won't be quite so pleased with some of the things his friend will teach the boy.

krisi07: Sorry, they're going to be short for a while until I can get over my writers block.

Neko Grafic: Heh, heh, heh…

Shinobi Darkbeak: Thanks, I'll do my best.

grim reaper sakura: I'm glad that I was able to make you feel better. You always manage to do the same for me with your great reviews.

HinaNaruFAN987: Me too. You can thank Hiei-Touya-Icedemon for it. She was the one that made me stop and think about what type of reaction Yotaro would have.

P I N K - P O C K Y: I'm glad you enjoy it.

Dragon Man 180: Yep, it does indeed.

Kaliea: thanks for all of your reviews. I really enjoy them. Till next time, ja ne!