I don't own anything except for my OCs. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

Chapter 4

"How did you know what I was thinking?" asked Tsunade, feeling slightly exposed as they ran along rooftops toward the area she had suggested. Hanta grinned, before explaining that since Shifters were also half animal, most of their conversations were said using body language. And since the body language of humans, albeit stiffer and more unnatural, were, similar to Shifters', it was easy to understand.

As they neared their destination, they felt a large tremor. Faltering, Tsunade glanced sharply at Hanta. She could have sworn she heard Hanta mutter that she had reminded Hashirama to be subtle. Hanta glanced at her and shook her head.

When they reached, Tsunade was stunned. She didn't really have many expectations, but this exceeded all of them (however little there were). For one, all of them were definitely not human. Secondly, was that the Sharingan she just saw? And lastly, where she had expected an open field was a ring of trees surrounding a lake. Next to the lake was a large tree, towering over them.

Squinting up, Tsunade could just barely make out some dark figures among the leaves. Hanta clearing her throat jolted Tsunade out of her reverie. With a start, she realized that there was now a familiar figure with them. Staring in disbelief, Tsunade managed to gasp out a throaty "grandfather?" before her mouth when dry.

There he was, her grandfather standing beside Hanta in all his glory. Tsunade couldn't believe it. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? Hashirama smiled gently before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but I'm not your grandfather." Next to them, Hanta rolled her eyes before interrupting.

"Sorry to break up this oh-so-touching reunion of Not granddaughter and Not grandfather, but as you have probably guessed, Hashirama here is not the one your grandfather, as I just mentioned. Secondly, he was the one who constructed this huge tree over here," said Hanta, pointing to it.

Hashirama smiled and waved at someone behind him. "Pleased to meet you, Hokage-san." He greeted before leaving them. Tsunade questioningly looked at Hashirama's retreating back.

Hanta beckoned to her before starting to climb up the tree.

Tsunade walked in a circle looking around her. After climbing up the tree - Hanta didn't allow her to walk up, she had been told that she was free to wander around and get familiar with the area by Hanta before she had left.

Scratching her head, Tsunade decided to walk on a random branch and hope to find someone to show her around. Choosing the closest one, she walked on it, noticing that the branches were at least 1.5 meters wide. After a while, she came across a strange slab of smooth wood, which was slightly off the branch. Since it resembled a door, she took a wild guess and assumed it was one and knocked on it. After doing so, Tsunade stepped back expecting the slab of wood to swing out like a door.

Instead, after a few seconds, a head stuck out from the slab of wood, looking like a decapitated head. Startled, Tsunade stepped back and almost fell off the branch. "Why the hell did you knock dammit!" snapped the head turning in her direction. Tsunade stared at it. The head was very familiar, except it had quite a few animalistic characteristics. It looked like Hidan (or the picture of him, since she had never personally seen him), with slitted eyes, two big fluffy pointed ears on the top of his head and what looked like sharp pointed fangs in his mouth, which were now open and snarling at her.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" the head, sorry, Hidan, snarled at her. She stayed silent staring at him. Hidan's head was staring back at her, lips still twisted into a snarl until his head finally disappeared. Tsunade almost felt relief until after a few seconds, someone stepped out of the slab (like he hadn't just come out a solid wall) and faced her.

The newcomer had stitches spanning his whole body. His long dark brown hair reached the middle of his back. His eyes had red sclera and piercing green pupils, with a muscular build and sculpted tan skin, wearing a loose black shirt and pants, while barefoot. He had an immensely threatening look and would honestly have made for a great disciplinary trainer.

Tsunade tensed, expecting one of Kakuzu's masks to appear and attack her. Instead, Kakuzu merely blinked at her before politely introducing himself as if he had never met her. "Hello. My name is Kakuzu and I assume that our dear leader left you here to get familiar with this place?" The sarcasm was so obviously dripping from his voice that it made her wince a little.

Before she could say anything, someone else came out of the slab of wood behind Kakuzu. Absentmindedly scratching the back of one of his ears, Hidan looked as if he had just woken up even though not fifteen minutes ago he had been snarling at her.

Tsunade took a second to glance at him. He had silver cat's ears and a silver tail coming from the waistband of his pants. She could see sharp pointed almost fang-like teeth when he opened his mouth to yawn and his tired magenta eyes were slitted.

Kakuzu glanced at Hidan but didn't say anything. He waited until his mate had shuffled next to him before grunting at Tsunade to follow him. As they walked, Hidan would knock on every door they passed by and move on without waiting. Hidan paused in front of two doors and motioned for them to continue. Looking back, she saw Hidan slip into the wood.

Kakuzu started jumping down a few branches smoothly with Tsunade struggling keep up. She hadn't known that traveling through the tree would be so difficult. Finally, Kakuzu slowed down and settled into a brisk trot.

They passed by several spaces, with branches weaving around each other to create to create a dome-shaped space where they acted as rooms. There were multiple kitchens storage rooms, libraries (those were the largest), neutral quarters where shifters could hang out together without feeling threatened about their space and more rooms which Kakuzu didn't bother explaining about.

Soon they came to a big hole. Without hesitation, Kakuzu jumped straight into it probably expecting her to follow. Usually, if this had happened, she would have followed, albeit more cautiously. Now, she was following a man who she didn't know and who seemed to expect her to jump down a hole without the use of chakra.

But getting lost in a gigantic tree whose occupants she knew could easily snap her in half didn't appeal to her either. Grimacing, she closed her eyes and stepped off the edge and fell down the hole.

As she fell, she couldn't stop thinking that what she had done was extremely foolish and that she should have just taken her chances with the shifters. After all, they could listen to reason. Suddenly it felt as if she had dropped into jelly. Opening her eyes, realized she saw that she had landed in a pond of what seemed like congealed water. Pulling a disgusted face, Tsunade quickly wadded to the edge and pulled herself out.

Looking around, she saw that she was in a kind of cavern, which had to be impossible because there was no way she had fell so deep. There was a giant bubble in the middle of the cavern, floating in the air with Mers swimming in it. There were tree branches erupting from the rock, acting as perches or steps. There was grass acting as a soft carpet which was surprisingly free of bugs or anything that one usually found living in the earth.

Once she had finished looking around realized that she had no idea what to do. Kakuzu had led her to what was obviously the pack's neutral space, but now she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.

Just then, an avian shifter landed in front of her. She instantly recognized the shifter as Temari.

Temari looked quite different than she used to. For starters, like all avians, she had feathers that looked like they were braided into her hair. Her teeth were smaller and sharper while her lips were slightly hard and pointed. Her eyes were narrower, sharper. Her legs had scales on them, and she only had three scaled clawed toes with an additional one on her heel. As she was a thrasher, her feet were suited for running, walking or hopping on the ground. Her wings had a distinctive white streak running across each one, which was brown with black shadings. Her tail feathers were long and thin, reaching the back of her calf.

She wore a short-sleeved black kimono that reached down to her legs, with slits along the side and a slightly revealing neckline. As well as a red sash tied around her waist, she also wore fingerless black gloves. Her kimono was modified to allow her wings to be unrestrained.

Another shifter stepped out of Temari's shadow. Shikamaru waved lazily at her. "Yo," he greeted. He was wearing the standard Jounin uniform without shoes. Being a stag, he had the ears, antlers, and tail of one. HIs fingertips and toes were brown and hard, acting as hooves.

Temari smiled before asking what was the Hokage doing in their home. Tsunade hastily explained her circumstances about Hanta, and following Kakuzu to this place, recognizing the familiar glint in the other woman's eyes as one that promised a slow and painful death if not answered.

Hearing that, Temari visibly calmed, the feathers on her head and wings settling down. Nodding to her, Temari asked Tsunade to follow her and led the way out of the cavernous space with Shikamaru following close behind.

They went into a tunnel at the side of the cavern. Walking, Tsunade guessed that the tunnel was made from, the roots of the tree. They soon reached the end, the tunnel opening up into the open air.

There were shifters and demons everywhere. Some of them she recognized as her own people, others from other hidden villages, some she knew were supposed to be dead and the rest she didn't recognize. What all of them shared, though, was their resemblance to a kind of animal or partially made out of an element.

After taking in everything, Tsunade realized that Shikamaru and Temari were bowing to someone behind her.. "I hope you found someone to show you around?" asked Hanta. Turning, Tsunade found Hanta at the mouth of the tunnel leading back int the tree.

With black hair, big and innocent looking light brown eyes, Hanta looked the least likely to be leading a pack. Hanta smiled and bowed back at the Nara pair as a sign that even as a leader, she was no better than them. After thanking them, she nodded at Tsunade to follow her. "Sorry for abandoning you like that. But I wanted to look around the village to see what was going on for myself. Do your villagers know about us yet?"

Tsunade shook her head guiltily. Worried about how the villagers - both civilians and shinobi alike - would respond, she had neglected to inform anyone about the shifters. Especially when she thought of how they treated Naruto because he was a jinchuuriki. Even though he was the reason why Kurama had not completely destroyed the village and killed more people.

Hanta said nothing more as they walked, the disapproval clear on her face. She had nothing against working in the shadows, but she detested helping someone who would never appreciate what was done for them. Especially for people as narrow-minded as Konoha. Still, she had made a pact with Hashiama to help his village and there was no way she could back out of it. This was one of the reasons she hated humans. Not just because of their greed and arrogance, but also because they liked to take their anger on innocent beings and their hate of the unknown. Even though they were the ones who had invaded the Shifter's territory.

In silence, they walked to the border of the pack's new territory. Tsunade thanked Hanta for introducing her to the pack. "I didn't. You should thank Temari, Shikamaru, and Kakuzu instead. Anyway, it's late now. You'd better go now." said Hanta dismissively, already turning and disappearing into the forest behind her.

Tsunade stayed silent and nodded to herself before heading back. After a while, She noticed that the air had become colder with each step she took. Soon, she could even see each breath she let out. Strangely, though, she didn't feel anything. A rustle from some bushes to her left diverted her attention the more immediate threat.

Stilling, she tensed and looked at the bushes. Soon, a great beast emerged from the bush. Its fangs were threateningly long and sharp, and their ability to rip and tear anything with flesh were not doubted in the slightest. Its eyes were heterochromatic, with one blood red, the other a bright yellow. There looked as if a fire in the yellow eye. A tiny spark, suddenly a blazing inferno. The red eye looked like the color were liquid, shimmering and swirling like it itself were blood.

It's void black coat had silver streaks running through it, pulsing and melting into the darker color occasionally reflecting the last few rays of day, behaving like it had a mind of its own. But despite the silver reflecting some bits of light, instead of showing its position, it just made it melt into the shadows even more. It was around the size of a large horse, and would almost certainly be able to be ridden like on too.

Even as she stared at it, part of the wolf still seemed to dissolve, becoming whispery wisps of nothing. The beast stared at her unblinking, almost seeming as if it were curious of the human in front of it. Frozen, Tsunade could not do anything. She did not want to harm the creature and later find out it was a shifter, but neither did she want to become a meal for an animal.

The wolf soon made the decision for her. It padded silently out of the bush completely and stepped closer sniffing her. When it was satisfied, it turned and left, walking and evaporation into a tree's shadow.

After finding out that she could now move her limbs, Tsunade scowled and marched back to the Hokage's Tower as fast as she could.

As Hanta got ready to sleep, she mentally prepared to wake up by a bucket of ice-cold water courtesy of Kage. "But maybe... It would be better." she murmured sleepily. "At least it would stop me from reliving that night completely. At least before That happens..."

Notes: Hanta's real hair is black with silver/white streaks and she has different colored eyes. But she often changes her appearance because it attracts too much attention. Tsunade has only seen her with black hair and brown eyes. Sorry for not updating earlier... I was caught up in school work and I ended up rewriting the entire story after I realized that I mixed it up with someone from the sequel. Hehe... I'll try to upload the next chapter sooner, but I can't promise anything. And I started another fic, so for anyone who read until this chapter, if you want, please check it. If you have anything to comment about, like my way of writing or your views on this, please review.