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

Chapter 5

A twitch of the lips. The crease of a brow. The wrinkle of a smile. Loud joyful laughter. Quiet snoring. Pain shooting through her abdomen forcing her to release them. Kneeling on hands and knees. Trembling. Near collapse. Another spear tipped with barbed wire of pain. Finally. A small sniffle. She breathes slowly. Relaxing. In exhaustion, she falls on her side and curls up sheltering her chick. Hers and her dearest's. Their chick.

Her chick's one now. So young, yet she dreads the day when they'll separate. She knows they will. They have to. Or he'll die.

They came in the night. Her freedom was lost. Her chick is dead. And it's all her fault.

Kage looked down at his sister and sighed. How peaceful she looked. The worry lines constantly creasing her forehead were smoothed over. In this state, she looked blissfully innocent, as if what she had been through had never happened.

Bracing himself, Kage carefully opened a shadow above her body and emptied the entire contents of the pool of water he had gathered from the lake.

Even before the water touched her Kage was already dissolving into the shadow next to him. He was gone from her room before she woke up but the feedback of the shadows' solved the problem of him missing her reaction.

All was calm and quiet when a wave of shock, anger, and agony swept over him. Satisfied he solidified in his room.

After evaporating all the water, Hanta headed to the nearest kitchen to make breakfast. Soon the pack stumbled, walked, solidified, hopped or was carried into the room following the delicious mouth-watering smell coming from where she stood. Expertly flipping the pancakes onto plates she threw them in the general direction of each shifter while starting a new batch at the same time. Within another hour everyone was tucking into their fluffy warm honey sugar sprinkled pancakes.

After eating, they separately took their time traveling down to the plain. Once assembled and the children safely hidden in the trees ready to flee, everyone looked at each other with suspicion and tensed muscle.

Hidan was the first to move. Launching himself at Hanta and knocking her to the ground, he then attempted to rip out her throat. That was the signal for the others to go wild as well and attack anyone they could. Soon, the plains were filled with the sound of flesh ripping and the snarls of crazed animals.

Kage frowned from where he was perched in a tree. "She didn't tell me it was today," he murmured. A soft snort was heard next to him. "You just need a warning sign," Amu grinned green eyes glittering in amusement.

Kage rolled his eyes in annoyance and tracked over to pluck a leaf stuck in the younger's hair. Standing up and stretching he made a face before jumping down. Strolling deeper into the underbrush with Hidan and Kakuzu's eldest son tagging along, he made a wistful smile and shook his head sadly. 'Ah Hanta. You still miss them don't you?'

Naruto pursed his lips thoughtfully as he hid from his Hokage. "Hmmm, is she going to meet the suspicious people again? I need to be careful not to get spotted.'

Tsunade was too immersed in her thoughts to notice her shadow creeping around behind her. She had continuously pondered about the wolf and the relationship it might have had with the other cases of animals.

Upon reaching her destination, she regretted not informing Hanta about her decision to meet her. The forest surrounding the large tree was packed close together and hardly any light under the dense canopy.

Shaking her head, she berated herself for feeling uneasy before entering the unknown. Surprisingly, the trip through the trees wasn't as hard as she thought it would be. The roots in the ground never posed a problem and the overhanging branches were higher than they looked. However, once she reached the plains she wished that she had indeed sent a letter ahead of time and that she had had a harder time in the forest.

All around the plains was bloodshed, with shifters rolling around trying to dislodge one ripping and tearing into them or trying their hardest to kill their targets. All the while horrible noises came from the deepest part of their throats. Screeches snarls growls barks roars, it was a cacophony of dying and enraged beings.

She saw Deidara attempting to fly before dropping when Kiba leaped up and bit his leg, dragging the both of them down. From there they proceeded to roll and thrash on the ground golden feathers brown fur and blood smearing the grass.

Revulsion bubbled inside of her as she turned to leave. As she entered the forest again, a loud familiar scream stopped her in her tracks. Naruto wasn't a shifter!

Spinning around, she saw Iruka clamping his jaws full of razor sharp teeth around Naruto's wrist. A loud crunch and another pained scream told Tsunade that it was broken.

Iruka's eyes were dilated and bloodshot. He had various bloody wounds and an open gash slicing down his left arm. Giving them a demented smile he twisted and tore the flesh of Naruto's wrist off. Not resting for a second, he reached out and grabbed Naruto's neck. Remembering that shifters wouldn't bother to strangle as they were strong enough to simply break their prey's necks, Tsunade gritted her teeth and lurched forwards really to punch Iruka.

Before she could a loud resounding howl echoed through the whole plain. Iruka's head snapped to the side and gave a savage screech before releasing Naruto and running away. Tsunade stared at Iruka's retreat, lumbering on fours before climbing to two, running a bit before dropping back on fours and repeating.

Tearing her eyes from the sight, she instead concentrated on Naruto's wrist. The boy was scream and crying, trying to curl up into a ball and gripping his wrist. She pried his hand away and focused on using her chakra to mend the tissue.

Behind her Hanta ran up to them to access the damage, already digging her fingers into her own flesh to pop out the joints of her arm. Skidding beside Tsunade she grabbed Naruto's arm and popped it out of its socket before proceeding to twist it until the entire arm separated ignoring Naruto's pained yell and Tsunade's protests. Now clutching a bloody arm, Hanta dropped Naruto's and fully tore her own's off.

Not saying anything she merely pushed her arm into Naruto's arm socket. Casting an eye over Tsunade to satisfy herself that there were no more injuries, she looked back at Naruto. He had stopped screaming and her arm was busy attaching itself to him, connecting their veins and nerves, producing more blood to pump, skin creeping back and forth permanently attaching both arm and shoulder together.

When it was done, there was no trace of it having ever belonged to someone except Naruto. He twitched before cautiously pushing himself up and moving his limbs. Crisis over he stared at Hanta before spewing questions at her.

"How did you do that, why did Iruka-sensei attack me, why did he look like that, why are your ears so furry, is that a tail why are-" he demands were cut short when a pair of hands clamped down on his shoulders. "Eh? Why's a runt like you doing here?" Tsume sneered. Naruto squealed and tried to struggle his way out of her grasp. Digging her nails into his shoulders she warned him softly that should he continue, she would detach #both# his arms for him. That caused him to stiffen up and stop.

"Tsume, let go of him. Remember, he's Kurama's container." Rasped out Shino's father, insect mandibles clicking together around his words. Tsume growled a warning. While the parents were having a face-off with each other, Hanta calmly ignored them and turned her attention to Tsunade.

"So, why did you come here without alerting me first?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes slightly. Hanta's time was friendly enough, but her body said otherwise. "I wanted to know if there was any progress," she informed curtly, hoping that her display of dominance was the right choice. Apparently it was as Hanta cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow with a small smile. "I only got here less a little more than twenty-four hours ago and you're already asking for progress?" She asked, sarcasm dripping in each syllable. Spinning on her heel, Hanta walked away beckoning her to follow.

They walked over to the base of the recently grown tree that she observed had no other shifter nearby. Privacy? "I looked around last night, and I've managed to narrow the possible causes to just two. But, neither of they are in anyway good, and if I'm right - which I don't want to be - then we have a problem" Hanta paused, glancing around nervously as if she was worried about eavesdroppers.

Tsunade looked at her concerned. Hanta shuffled uncomfortably, tail waving side to side agitated, ears flicking catching all sounds, occasionally flattening themselves against her head. She took a deep breath, then continued. "The first is that it could be a Shifter or demon gone berserk, and if so, it's most likely a shadow demon, and a strong one at that."

"The second is similar but more severe. Someone could be torturing him or her to gain their elements, and they're responding with bursts of concentrated energy that infects passing beings like animals. The infected slowly succumbs to the foreign energy and it explodes out of its host, causing the creature to become the element."

"That's why it's a problem. No one just tortures demons for fun. They could be planning to wipe out entire hidden villages with that sort of power. And if we're too late to stop it, then you all will die." Staring at Tsunade seriously, Hanta unconsciously straightened her back and lifted her chin higher, transforming from a shy uncertain person that blended well into the background to a confident leader that commanded attention and respect.

Tsunade stiffened. The power to destroy whole hidden villages? How could someone manage to turn in that sort of power? And could she use it as well for Konoha's benefit? Catching onto her thoughts, Hanta snarled ferociously. "If you follow that line of even a little, I will kill you." Snapping her attention back to the shifter, Tsunade remembered that one, a shifter was helping her and two, just one could murder hundreds of shinobi by themselves. There was no way that that kind of power could be harnessed. Not even the beings themselves could. That's why some went berserk when they kept it in.

Swallowing, she praised Hanta for managing to find out that much in so little time and said that she would be going now. "Don't forget the boy. I think he's still alive but I'm not sure." Drawled Hanta sardonically. Gazing at Tsunade with half lidded eyelids, she sneered before entering the surrounding forest. Staring at Hanta as the forest swallowed her, Tsunade wondered once again why she had decided to become Hokage. Her grandfather had already warned her of shifters when she was a child. Yet she still got a job that made interacting with them easier. Still troubled, she left to get Naruto who, despite her worries was perfectly fine and was laughing his lungs watching Tsume and Shibi wrestle with Kiba and Shino.

He trudged on wearily. Sweaty, exhausted. Every bit of his body ached and his core wouldn't stop flaring painfully. More sweat dripped into his eyes causing him to blink hard, weakly raising his hand to wipe it. He gazed blearily around his surroundings. When had he entered a desert? He could have sworn just a few minutes ago he had crawled out of a hole in a forest that had seemed to stretch on for miles on either side.

Argh! The burning was too much now. The urge to get it out of him defeated the terror of doing so. He collapsed onto his hands and knees as his power once again exploded out, washing over the terrain and infecting any living beings it came across before disappearing. The infected continued on their way none the wiser.

A Suna shinobi felt a chill crawl up his back. After stopping to inspect his surroundings, he continued on his way dismissing the feeling as paranoia, continuing his journey back to Sunagakure.

Sorry for taking so long. :/ Exams are coming and I rewrote this entire thing at least three time, still quite sure I haven't spotted all my grammatical errors and I excel at getting people mad. All in all my life's a disaster, but if anyone likes reading this, please leave a review and for my part I'll try to update the next chapter asap and also try not to be such a pessimistic grumpy lil shit. :)