Chapter 39

Naruto grinned widely as he stared at the large structure he and Sasuke had helped build. It didn't look the same as it had on the day it had been completed but that was only because today it was covered with streamers and balloons of ever color imaginable. He laughed when Shinta, who was resting on his shoulders, tugged excitedly at his blond hair in order to drag his attention to a large bunch of brightly colored balloons that had been released to scatter across the sky.

"Tou-chan, tou-chan!" Shigure said as he tugged on Naruto's hand. "Look! Look! Clowns!"

Naruto chuckled at the enthusiasm of his children before he spared as slight glance over at his companion who, not surprisingly, was looking slightly harassed by his two daughters.

Sasuke had been having a few issues trying to keep track of Midori while Kaede seemed to wail for his attention every time he looked up to search for the older girl. He had nearly shown panic a few minutes ago when Midori had completely disappeared only to practically sag with relief when he realized that she was actually standing behind him.

"Having trouble Teme?" Naruto asked with a snicker.

Sasuke glared at his friend but before he could respond Midori tugged at his hand for his attention and as soon as he looked at her Kaede promptly erupted into tears. He sighed and apologized to Midori before he once again began to shush the baby. Midori huffed in annoyance as she turned from Sasuke and crossed her arms with a pout.

Naruto snickered again as he expertly juggled his attention between both the twins as well as Sasuke.

"You had better hope that Sakira-chan comes fast."

Sasuke just grunted as he reached down to tug lightly on Midori's left pigtail. She looked up with a pout which quickly morphed into a grin when Sasuke held out his arm. Quickly she latched on and he effortlessly lifted her up to rest on his shoulders where she would be able to see everything with out feeling the need to have his attention.

"Just be careful, Midori," Sasuke said. "You don't want to kick Kaede."

"Hai, tou-chan!"

For about five more minutes the boys wandered through the crowed as they tried to entertain their children and search for their wives at the same time. Sasuke had just resolved to tell Naruto that they should head back to the house when the blond suddenly let out a gasp as his hand flew up to clutch his shirt just over his heart.

Sasuke tensed visibly as his left hand curled under the sling holding Kaede across his chest.

"What's wrong Naruto?" he asked. "Were you attacked?"

"N-no…It just kind of felt like a part of me just…disappeared. It was really weird…" Naruto's voice trailed off as he bit his lip slightly. "We should go back…"

Sasuke nodded but before either of them could start heading back Haku appeared beside them in the crowed. Both boys looked down at the younger looking nin who was dressed in a simple kimono to pass as a villager.

"What is it?" Sasuke said. "Are Sakura and Hinata alright?"

Haku nodded. "Yes, Sakura-sama and Hinata-sama merely completed the sealing. I ran ahead to make sure that neither you nor Naruto-sama did anything rash."

"So then the reason I felt that weird thing is because Sakura sealed her heartstrings?"

Haku nodded. "Yes. Sakura-sama and Hinata-sama are on their way. They wished to make sure the sealing worked. I will inform them that it has and then lead them to you."

Sasuke just nodded while Naruto clapped his free hand on the boy's shoulder. "Thanks a lot Haku."

Haku nodded once before he slipped into the crowd and disappeared.

(How much longer do you plan to be here kit?) Kyuubi said as he poked his small head from the leather pouch at Naruto's side. (We should have moved on long before now.)

"I thought I told you to stay at the house Kyuubi-chan." Naruto said without any surprise, he had long known that the little fox was there. "It isn't exactly usual for someone to carry a fox kit in their waist pouch."

Kyuubi gave a fox-shrug. (I care not if you are seen as unusual.)

"Obviously."

"Kyuu-ku! Kyuu-ku!" Shigure said as he dropped his father's hand to attempt to dig the small fox from the pouch.

(Don't touch me!) Kyuubi yipped despite knowing that the little boy couldn't understand a word he said. (If you do I'll—!)

"You hurt my kid and we'll be having fox-stew for dinner."

Kyuubi instantly fell silent and instead just glared heatedly up at the blond as Shigure pulled him from the small pouch to cuddle the ball of ginger fluff tightly to his small chest. Kyuubi gave a small 'urk' as his air supply was abruptly cut off.

(One of these days kit…) Kyuubi swore. (One of these days…)

Naruto just chuckled.

"Iota! Kousuke-kun!"

Naruto and Sasuke turned to see Sakura and Hinata making their way through the crowd before Kyuubi suddenly shouted.

(DROP!!)

Naruto didn't even think twice before he quickly dropped to the ground dragging Sasuke down with him just in time to avoid a white spear-like object as it hurtled through the air where their heads had been before lodging deeply into the bridge. Terrified screams erupted along the bridge as the gathered crowed tried to run towards either side of the bridge in an attempt to escape. In the frenzy of bodies Sasuke and Naruto quickly lost sight of the girls and, soon after, each other.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Yotaro pulled to a stop and brought his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun as he searched out his guardian-familiar, Murasami.

"What is it Yotaro?" Yume said as he easily landed beside the younger boy. "Is something wrong?"

"Murasami called me," Yotaro said. "He said that there's a 'disturbance' which for him means that we have some serious problems ahead."

"What did he say?" Kaemon said as he quickly began searching the horizon for any sign of Sanjimaru.

"Nothing yet…Here he comes." All three men looked up as a small white dot appeared in the sky. Murasami hurtled towards the group like a bullet steadily growing larger and larger until he was only ten feet above them. Yume ducked slightly to shield Kane from the sudden breeze that picked up when Murasami opened his wings wide to suddenly bring his breakneck dive into a gentle hover.

"What's going on Murasami?" Yotaro asked. "What did you see up at the Wave Country?"

Murasami's face was stern as he quickly related what he and Sanjimaru had seen while scouting ahead.

"A large festival is taking place on the bridge connecting the island to the main land. While flying ahead I managed to spot the Kyuubi but he was with strangers, not your son Yondaime-sama."

"Strangers?" Kaemon said. "That's impossible. If a guardian-familiar is not connected with his fusion he falls into insanity."

"Yes," Murasami said. "It happened to the Kyuubi once before, when he was unable to locate his fusion the first time."

Yume nodded. "Yes, the attack on Konoha thirteen years ago."

"And yet Kyuubi is seemingly fine even though he currently resides with strangers…" Kaemon said. "Very odd…"

"That is not all," Murasami said. "I am afraid that we are not the only ones to have suspected this area."

The group quickly gave the large owl their undivided attention, disturbed by the gravity held in his voice.

"Kimimaro is already there and he has launched an attack on the bridge. He was aiming for the strangers who had Kyuubi in their possession."

Kaemon cursed. "Come. We must hurry before there are any more casualties then necessary."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Whatever Ichigo had prepared herself to find, it wasn't this. In a small clearing she was startled to find the still burning remains of a small cottage with the fire rapidly spreading through the surrounding forest life. Gaara stopped beside her at the edge of the trees, equally surprised by the raging heat as the flames quickly ate up everything they could reach.

"We have to stop it," Gaara said, his voice deadly calm as he began to form several seals only to pause when he noticed that Ichigo was standing with her hands crossed at the wrists over hear head.

Her open palms were facing out towards the raging fire and her eyes were calmly shut. Time seemed to hang suspended for hours though it must have only been a second or two before her deep brown eyes flew open at the same moment she whipped her hands down so that her wrists hovered level with her upper thighs.

Instantly the flames parted down the middle of the clearing before racing outwards to the furthest edges that it had managed to reach until it was snuffed out completely. Clouds of smoke hovered around the edges of the clearing still curled inward from having Ichigo's charka forcing the fire to rapidly part.

Gaara blinked once in surprise before he glanced over at the shorter redhead.

"Show off."

Ichigo just grinned before she hurriedly skipped over to where the building seemed ready to cave in.

"I wonder who set it on fire," Ichigo said as she pushed gently on the blackened door, causing it to fall in with a large puff of ash. Gaara shrugged unnoticed behind her as the Haruno girl gingerly stepped onto the fallen door to walk inside. The building was apparently very stable because despite the fire having ravaged the outside the inside was left virtually untouched except for the tatami mats which seemed to have been heavily singed by the heat.

"Nice place…" Ichigo said, her voice low as she scouted around. The house was small but seemingly comfortable and well taken care of though she couldn't imagine that it had been a group larger then three or four that had lived there. She said 'had' because there was no way they were going to want to return after the amount of damage the outside had taken. Even if the inside was mostly alright on the bottom floor the upper level would have more then likely already caved in.

"Who do you think lived here Gaara?" Ichigo said as she examined a cabinet full of smoke damaged china. "Farmers maybe?"

Gaara was about to respond when Ichigo made a noise of surprise. "No way! Gaara! Come and look at this!"

Wordlessly Gaara crossed into the dinning room where he carefully took the plate that Ichigo suddenly thrust at him.

"What about it?"

"Don't you see anything odd about it?" Ichigo demanded which caused Gaara to pause slightly as he looked it over.

"…No."

Ichigo rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'men' under her breath before she turned it over and pointed to the small insignia located at the center of the base.

"Look, it says 'Hanazakari'!"

Gaara eyed the logo for a moment before he looked up at Ichigo with a shrug. "So?"

Ichigo gave him an annoyed look. "You can't honestly be serious."

Gaara just blinked.

Ichigo huffed as she planted her fists firmly on her hips. "Hanazakari is a shop that sells fine Chinas and such."

Gaara gave her a look and motioned towards her with the plate as though to say, 'well duh'. Ichigo waved him off irritatedly before she continued.

"It is really rare to find Hanazakari and when some one does it can be sold for a lot of money. The reason why is because Hanazakari was a shop located in Konoha. My grandmother bought our China there when I was four and she took me and Sakura along to choose the pattern."

"…So?"

"Oh don't you see Gaara! Outside of Konoha people are lucky to come across one or two of the same patterned Hanazakari and yet here we've just walked into a house that has a complete set! Including tea cups! Don't you know what that means?"

Gaara blinked. "…No."

"It means that whoever lived here came from Konoha! Gaara! They could be ninja! We have to find them!"

End Chapter 39

Kaliea: Yay! I'm back in business! Sorry it took so long and I'm even more sorry for such a short update, but, hey! At least I updated right? Thanks for all of your reviews!

Review Answers:

flaming witch of fire: I'll do my best.

Danny-171984: What can I say? Kane was born to impress ;) As for Sakura's heartstrings, people with certain bloodline limits or with a vast knowledge of how charka works would be able to track a person who can use the heartstrings through the symmetry plain. The can't see the heartstrings but they can be felt by someone who know what they're looking for. Some one like Orochimaru could track them down easily if it weren't for the barrier that Hikari put on Sakura's necklace.

cbsnumba1: Not so happy family reunion I'm afraid. Actually I'm really not. I rather enjoy being evil to my characters.

HinaNaruFAN987: I'm glad you enjoyed it.

grim reaper sakura: I'm sorry it's been so long but I'll try and do better since I'm so close to the end of this story.

Princess Ren: Their reactions will be rather funny I think, but you'll just have to wait and judge for yourselves.

Shinobi Darkbeak: I'll do my best.

Neko Grafic: I'm glad.

anonymous naruhinafan: Naruto can't see the heartstrings so he wouldn't be able to see Kane's 'void'. He can, however, sense presences in the symmetry plain which is what Sakura wanted him to do.

Dragon Man 180: Orochimaru is a freak. However I am very sure that you will not enjoy what I have planned for the future if you wish to see him die a painful death.

Kaliea: Special thanks to all of you who offered your support and suggestions while I was trying to fix my dilemma. You rock! Till next time, Ja ne!